Worker shortage crimps Canada’s oil sands ambitions

For Canada’s energy industry it’s the $100-billion-dollar question: are enough welders, pipefitters and electricians available to meet a goal of tripling oil sands output over the next decade?

Alberta’s tight labor market, already the cause of several cost overruns and delays, is the biggest inhibitor to a target of pumping 2.7 million barrels a day of oil sands-derived crude by 2015, industry executives and analysts said.