May 25

　　With its economy riding the global commodities boom and unemployment at its lowest rate for 30 years, Canada faces a problem many other countries might envy: it has run out of workers, or at least of many kinds of blue-collar workers. In Alberta's oil sands, and in neighbouring British Columbia, which is preparing for the 2010 Winter Olympics, there is a backlog of construction projects worth billions of dollars. Across the country, builders are competing fiercely for anyone who can wield a hammer, trowel or welding torch.

　　This labour shortage has sparked a debate about immigration that is different from the one convulsing the United States. In Canada, the main issue is not illegal immigrants. It is about how to change the country's large, legal immigration programmes so that they reflect Canada's new economic and demographic needs.

　　One underlying problem is that fewer Canadians are joining the labour force. Young people are staying longer in higher education. In oil-rich Alberta, fewer women are looking for work. It is not clear whether that is because of their husbands' hefty paycheques or because Alberta's social conservatism is confining them to the kitchen. Another problem is that although the overall unemployment rate is still 6.4% it is almost half that in the booming west.

　　Desperate employers are scouring the country—and beyond—for workers. On the Atlantic coast, where jobs disappeared along with cod and coal mines, some villages have now emptied of men. They have gone to work in the oil sands 4,000 kilometres (2,500 miles) away. To take them there, Air Canada has added new routes. In northern Saskatchewan, a highway is being asphalted to speed the province's last big pool of unemployed labour to Alberta. Last winter, employers' groups from Alberta and British Columbia held job fairs in Europe.

　　Canada also admits about 95,000 foreigners a year as temporary workers. Some employers now want to expand this programme.