Hebron deal could lure Newfoundlanders back from Alberta's riches

The Atlantic Kitchen, a restaurant in Fort Saskatchewan, just northeast of Edmonton, is a gathering place for relocated Newfoundlanders.(CBC)

Newfoundlanders who were lured to Alberta to work in the booming energy sector may now have a new reason to go home, after Wednesday's signing of the final agreement for the giant Hebron offshore oil project.

Its expected that the oil field will start pumping in 2017 and create about 3,500 jobs.

One report from the Atlantic Provinces Economic Council found that in 2006, over 5,000 people came to Alberta from Newfoundland and Labrador.

"Just waiting to get back home now," said Belinda Lane, who works at the Atlantic Kitchen, a restaurant in Fort Saskatchewan, just northeast of Edmonton.

Belinda Lane, who along with her husband, a crane operator, have been in Alberta since 1995, are just "itching" to return to Newfoundland.(CBC)

The restaurant, near the centre of the region's refineries and oil processing plants, is a gathering place for Newfoundlanders. The manager is a Newfoundlander, as are most of the employees.

Lane's husband is a crane operator. Although they are not planning on packing up right away, she said, they are "itching to go."

"Hopefully it will be really soon. Heard it on the news and went 'Yahoo! Maybe I'll get back on the Rock again.' Things are looking brighter than when we left in '95. So hopefully things will make a turn. [Newfoundland] will be like Alberta someday."

But others want to wait and see what happens in their home province before giving up on the benefits of the Western Canadian boom.

Irene Goodland, another Newfoundlander, is not so sure she and her husband, an ironworker, want to leave Alberta for her home province.(CBC)

"We have two cars. We never had two cars in Newfoundland. We have money when we want it. We take a vacation," said Irene Goodland, another restaurant employee whose husband is an ironworker and welder.

The government of Newfoundland and Labrador is estimating the province will gain at least $20 billion in royalties from the Hebron oil project.

The deal gives the province a 4.9 per cent equity stake, which officials calculate could be worth up to $28 billion.

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