Canada's newest import from China?

[Glen]

The Chinese see the oil sands as expensive, largely because of high labour costs, said Wenran Jiang, associate professor and Mactaggart research chair of the China Institute at the University of Alberta. They feel they can fix the problem by supplying their own cheap workforce, as they are doing in oil projects around the world, but are frustrated by Canadian regulations and public perceptions.

Mr. Jiang said the Chinese are convinced their labour could solve the oil sands' high-cost challenge and even temper world oil prices, which to some extent are influenced by the cost of producing the most expensive barrels.

http://www.financialpost.com/story.html?id=1656706

No thank you.

 

[cacruden]

http://www.financialpost.com/story.html?id=1656706

No thank you.

Oil price is driven by market forces, not by cost to product - if cost is too high and/or price is too low then it just will sit in the ground until economics make sense. Labour is not a major issue in this case (IMHO). Price of labour only goes down if you can import people under "slavery" like conditions - otherwise they just land and move to a higher paying job

 

[Glen]

Oil price is driven by market forces, not by cost to product - if cost is too high and/or price is too low then it just will sit in the ground until economics make sense. Labour is not a major issue in this case (IMHO). Price of labour only goes down if you can import people under "slavery" like conditions - otherwise they just land and move to a higher paying job

Fuel prices in China are set by the government which is why it has an interest in cost.

 

[Glen]

Well it looks like SINOPEC did bring in its own labourers. Some died, few got paid.

Canadian Natural Resources Limited has built Phase I of the gigantic oil sands project known as Horizon Oil Sands where it awarded a contract to a subsidiary of Sinopec, SSEC Canada Ltd. (whose parent company is Sinopec Shanghai Engineering Company Ltd.) for the construction of two tank farms comprising eleven storage tanks and the supply of the required labor.
SSEC Canada Ltd. brought in temporary foreign workers into Canada to do the work in 2006 and 2007. On April 24, 2007 an accident on site occurred. Two Chinese workers died and five more were injured, two seriously.



Safety of Chinese workers and laws allegedly ignored
An investigation by Alberta health and safety officials, along with employment standards personnel, ensued and this spring 53 charges were laid in total against the three companies for allegedly unsafe working conditions which led to the fatalities and injuries -- SSEC Canada Ltd., Sinopec Shanghai Engineering Company Ltd., and CNRL, said Barrie Harrison with Alberta Employment and Immigration in Edmonton in a phone interview last week.
Accidents happen all the time but there are two other problems that have arisen since dealing with the Chinese entities. The first is that the court case had to be delayed because of Sinopec and the second issue is that the Chinese workers were not paid by their Chinese employer even though they worked four months before the accident and their quick departure.
“Sinopec now claims that they have no representatives in Canada so we are unable to ‘serve’ them and the court case was delayed until we can establish who their official representatives are and serve them notice,†said Chris Chodan, spokesman for the Alberta Occupational Health and Safety Branch. “The next court appearance is scheduled for 14 September. The court case could actually proceed without Sinopec being present however.â€

http://network.nationalpost.com/np/...24/china-a-questionable-business-partner.aspx

 

[urbanfan89]

Canada's latest import from China is now the Wu Mao http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/50_Cent_Party where the CPC pays people to flood blogs and comment sections with the talking points du jour.

Just browse through the comments here

http://www.cbc.ca/canada/story/2009/08/26/senate-appointment-harper-0626.html

to see what the other CPC has done.

 

[Therion]

Yes, I'm sure outsourcing Canada's only growth industry to Chinese labour will go over well with Albertan voters. I don't think we'll see this in any significant quantity. It would be political suicide to allow it.

 

[lordmandeep]

A lot of the work is quite dangerous, there is a reason why workers get paid so much.