NOVEMBER 2, 2016
News Advertiser insider
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Joe Machney
Reporter
The community of Vegreville was
blindsided on October 27 when word
got to the CPC Immigration building
that they would be closing their doors
in 2018 and moving to Edmonton,
forcing 230 or possibly 280 employees
that work there to pull up stakes and
relocate to save their jobs.
The impact of this decision will have
hard and dire consequences, not just to
the people whom it effects, but also to
the community of Vegreville itself. As
the ramifications spill over into the
community children will be pulled
from schools and money will come out
of the economy as 5% of the under
6000 population of the town is being
forced to leave to keep their income.
Assistant Deputy Minister of
Operations; Robert J. Orr came on
behalf of the employer and the direc-
tor general Paul Armstrong who both
represent the federal government to
make the announcement about the
closing. Local management came as
well.
The Federal government decided that
the Vegreville Case Processing Centre
for the Immigration Refugee
Immigration would be closed as of
January 1 of 2019 as the lease on the
building expires in February of 2019.
They want to have everybody moved
out of Vegreville and relocated to an
unknown location in Edmonton at this
point. The Liberal government indi-
cated that it will be a two-year process
to get it done and during that two-year
process the people working are going
to have to decide whether they will
commute to the city or uproot their
family and move to Edmonton.
The reason given to the employees was
that it was a business decision. “The
feasibility of this business decision is
difficult to comprehend because the cost
of living is so much more in Edmonton
than it is in Vegreville,” said Mike
Brecht, Deputy Trustee for the Canada
Employment Immigration Union for the
Prairies being Alberta, Saskatchewan,
Manitoba, NWT and Nunavut.
“The steps that should be taken by the
people in Vegreville who will be affected
is that they need to let the people know
who can do something on their behalf,
to let them know how this is going to
affect the community of Vegreville.
They need to lobby their MP, their
MLA, the Prime Minister’s Office, and
even their local council, who since the
meeting on October 27 have been very
supportive,” Brecht urged. “For a Prime
Minister who likes to champion himself
as a supporter of families this move will
tear families apart, it does not unite
them. The lease here is a lot less money
for the employer, so the move to
Edmonton will not save the government
money it will cost each and every tax-
payer money as well to have them move
to Edmonton.”
“It’s time that we recognize that these
smaller communities build jobs and
build families and that’s what makes
our country so strong are these com-
munities and an extra 280 people in
Edmonton won’t even be noticed but
here it will be greatly noticed and
missed,” concluded Brecht.
“I am very surprised of our Federal
government to not even contact our
municipality,” said Vegreville Mayor
Myron Hayduk. “The reasons why
they’re giving to moving the CPC are
not factual and I feel it’s a political
move, nothing more. The concerns
that they had could have been worked
out very easily if we would have started
talking about it when they got this in
their minds that they’re moving it. So
to be told that the decision has already
been made is not a democracy, it’s a
dictatorship. It has to do with friends
of the Liberal government and I sin-
cerely feel that this is just wrong. They
are not realizing the devastation that
this is going to have on this commu-
nity and the surrounding communities
too. It will affect real estate, the retail-
ers, the schools, everything. The town
itself, the councilors, and the staff are
going to do all we can to make this not
happen because it is just too much of
an impact on everybody here.”
“This decision blindsided employees
in Vegreville and was obviously made
with no consideration of the people
who would be impacted most and no
consultation about the consequences
on the community as a whole.
Employees and their families are
extremely distressed and uncertain
about their futures because of the
chaos caused by the announcement. I
am hearing from some employees who
fear this decision was a self-fulfilling
prophecy and predetermined inter-
nally because they’ve had a significant
decrease in their case load and a
decline in paper applications, so
they’re concerned the reduction is
being used to justify the relocation;
others are barely able to keep up with
their enormous and ever increasing
workloads because of increases in elec-
tronic application processing in other
streams, but they’ve been told tele-
working with the new Edmonton loca-
tion is not an option even though all
the work is done electronically. People
are very worried and insecure about
their futures; what is clear is the shock-
ing announcement will remove a vital and
successful economic epicenter of the com-
munity at the very worst time. It’s appall-
ing,” said MP Shannon Stubbs. “The lack
of consultation with local government on
this issue is equally disturbing. Their ‘con-
sult consult consult’ approach seems to
only apply to those living in convenient
urban centers. This dangerous decision
needs to be revisited. I urge the Prime
Minister, Minister McCallum and the
Department of Immigration, Refugees and
Citizenship to immediately reverse this
decision, consult with employees, adminis-
trators, community members, businesses
andmunicipal representatives inVegreville
to get a grasp on the situation, and to
understand the devastationof their decision
on these hard-working families.”
“Alberta’s New Democrats support
the people of Vegreville who are work-
ing to stop the closure of the federal
department of Public Works Case
Processing Centre in Vegreville and
the removal of 280 jobs from a com-
munity of 6000. Alberta’s New
Democrats will work to mobilize its
members to support efforts to keep
CPC in Vegreville. To this end, a peti-
tion shall be distributed at local busi-
nesses in Vegreville,” MLA Jessica
Littlewood said. “We need to support
our workers. Our friends. Our fami-
lies. Our rural municipalities. When
we lose good family supporting jobs
that pay the mortgage, our businesses
and quality of life suffer for those that
continue to call rural Alberta home.
We urge the Federal government to
reconsider this decision and to speak
to the workers, the families and to the
Town of Vegreville.”
Visit our facebook page to get in on the
discussion as well as follow a link to an
online petition.
facebook.com/vegreville
CPC pulling out fromVeg in 2018, cutting 280 local jobs
