'Hey Alberta, no!': Chatham-Kent goes on the defensive against campaign luring workers to the west
In response to Alberta ads encouraging Ontario residents to head west — the Municipality of Chatham-Kent has launched a counter campaign reminding local workers how good they have it in Southwestern Ontario.
“It's meant to be a fun thing to say, ‘no hang on! Chatham-Kent has everything and I believe more,” Mayor Darrin Canniff told CTV News Thursday.
The municipality has launched “Why CK” as a result of radio ads now being broadcast on local radio stations.
“I heard it, I'm thinking, ‘is this an advertisement for Ontario and Chatham Kent?’” Canniff said when he first found out about the ad campaign.
Earlier this month, Alberta rolled out phase two of their “Alberta is Calling” campaign in nine Ontario municipalities including Windsor and Chatham.
“They’ll see transit ads, billboards (and) they're going to hear radio ads,” Brian Jean, Alberta’s minister of jobs, economy and northern development, said at a news conference on March 13. “We targeted these (municipalities) because of the high unemployment, but also because of the type of skilled trades they have.”
Jean said at the time the government is spending $5 million on the campaign to lure workers from Ontario and the Maritimes to move to Alberta for a new career and a new life.
“We have nearly 100,000 rewarding jobs ready and available in a variety of high demand sectors, including skilled trades, health care, accounting, engineering, technology, but also in the service and tourism sector,” said Jean.
He said phase one of the campaign — in summer 2022 — lured nearly 33,000 people to move to Alberta.
“We have an excellent quality of life and an affordable lifestyle in every corner of this great and amazing province,” said Jean.
“We're looking (at the campaign) and saying, ‘hang on here. We have all those opportunities,’” said Canniff. “Every opportunity mentioned in there — we have those opportunities too.”
Canniff won’t say how much their commercial cost to produce or broadcast but did say it’s nowhere near the $5 million Alberta is spending across Canada.
Canniff noted the weather here is far better than the west, using Edmonton as an example.
”If you look at their average low for the year is -1C,” said Canniff. “So if you like cold temperatures, Alberta might be for you.”
While conceding Alberta does have the Rocky Mountains, Canniff noted no matter where you live in Chatham-Kent, you’re only 20 minutes from a beach.
CTVNews.ca Top Stories
Cargo ship had engine maintenance in port before Baltimore bridge collapse, officials say
The cargo ship that lost power and crashed into a bridge in Baltimore underwent 'routine engine maintenance' in port beforehand, the U.S. Coast Guard said Wednesday.
A Nigerian woman reviewed some tomato puree online. Now she faces jail
A Nigerian woman who wrote an online review of a can of tomato puree is facing imprisonment after its manufacturer accused her of making a “malicious allegation” that damaged its business.
Far North police 'dispatch' polar bear stalking schoolyard
Police and local hunters in an Ontario Far North First Nation community have “dispatched” a polar that was showing abnormal behaviour and treating the area as a hunting ground.
Donald Trump assails judge and his daughter after gag order in N.Y. hush-money criminal case
Donald Trump lashed out Wednesday at the New York judge who put him under a gag order that bars him from commenting publicly about witnesses, prosecutors, court staff and jurors in his upcoming hush-money criminal trial.
Families shocked after Niagara Falls hotel cancels bookings made year in advance of solar eclipse
After having the foresight to book their Niagara Falls hotel rooms more than a year in advance, several families planning to take in the solar eclipse next month were shocked to find out their reservations had been cancelled.
B.C. rescuers face 'high likelihood' of failure to reunite orphaned orca with pod
The race to reunite an orphaned orca calf that’s stuck in a shallow lagoon with a neighbouring pod has entered its fifth day, and a marine scientist says the clock is ticking.
Video shows police interrupting auto theft in progress outside Toronto home
New video footage obtained by CP24 shows the attempted theft of a vehicle in a North York driveway earlier this month that was ultimately interrupted by police.
Majority of Canadians believe in life after death: Angus Reid survey
A new survey from the Angus Reid Institute has found that a majority of Canadians believe in some form of life after death, a proportion that has held steady for decades.
MyPillow, owned by U.S. election denier Mike Lindell, formally evicted from Minnesota warehouse
A court ordered the eviction Wednesday of MyPillow from a suburban Minneapolis warehouse that it formerly used.