No short term fix for Alberta job losses: federal employment minister

CALGARY — Canada’s employment minister says there is no short-term fix for Alberta’s growing unemployment rate.

MaryAnn Mihychuk met with a number of business leaders and stakeholders in Calgary Monday to discuss the challenges facing Alberta workers.

She told reporters she didn’t come with “a wallet full of cash,” but she hopes government-backed infrastructure projects will help provide jobs for many Albertans.

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TIMELINE: Tracking the layoffs in Alberta’s oilpatch

Mihychuk warned that things are probably going to get worse before they get better.

At least 40,000 jobs have been lost in the oil and gas industry alone as a result of an economic downturn in the province caused by low oil prices.

Federal Conservative Leader Rona Ambrose has accused the Liberals in Ottawa of having no economic plan to respond to the collapse of oil other than to tax and spend.