Legal Weed Could Mean a Worker Shortage in Canada
- No way to tell if joint smoked before work or over the weekend
- Safety concern for Canada industry with lots of dangerous jobs
Photographer: David Paul Morris/Bloomberg
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Once recreational marijuana becomes legal in Canada, Garnet Amundson says it will get a lot harder to find the workers he needs at Essential Energy Services Ltd. And he isn’t the only employer who’s worried.
Essential Energy provides services to oil and natural-gas drillers across Canada, and its employees handle volatile chemicals, operate heavy equipment and work with high-pressure pipes and valves. In short, it can be a dangerous job if safety procedures aren’t followed to the letter. That’s why the Calgary-based company only hires people who pass a drug test.