This past weekend, representatives from EnMax Corp., a Calgary-based utility, held a four-day recruiting session at the Prince George Hotel in downtown Halifax. Enmax is looking for 20 workers from the Powerline Technician and Power System Electrician trades. Several former NSP employees have already left to join Enmax over the last several months, with more anticipating heading West in the near future. (See article on the CBC website for one former NSP lineman's story).

PowerTel Utilities Contractors Limited, based out of Ontario, is an outside line construction contractor that is agressively recruiting powerline technicians as they look to establish a presence in Atlantic Canada through a base in Nova Scotia. Their ad for PLTs ran in the Chronicle Herald on Saturday March 1st. PowerTel will be a direct competitor to Emera Utility Services (EUS). Emera is the parent company of both Nova Scotia Power and EUS. (See PowerTel's ad on Career Beacon.) 

BC Hydro is also actively recruiting powerline technicians and cable splicers. (See links to job postings on our Available Work page.) A number of linemen from Nova Scotia left recently to pursue work with Valard, MidLite, and Rockstad. The loss of these skilled workers will be felt in the province eventually, particularly as contractors seek labour to build the Maritime Link, a project approved in Nova Scotia last fall by the UARB. The Maritime Link will bring renewable power via undersea cables from the Lower Churchill Falls dam in Labrabor to Newfoundland, Nova Scotia, and the Eastern US.