Thursday, 23rd February 2012
All the latest Ashburton News, Sports, Community and Business Information
| Quake rebuild impact misjudged, says business adviser |
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By Sue Newman January 28, 2012
The impact will be felt across all sectors of the community he said, not only with qualified tradespeople but with other employees who were happy to swap a lower paid job in Ashburton for a labourer's job in Christchurch. Grow Mid Canterbury made a pitch to the Ashburton District Council for $130,000 to employ someone to co-ordinate a district wide approach to securing rebuild work, but was turned down. Both Dunedin and Timaru councils have set aside funds to secure a slice of this work. In a last-ditch effort to ensure Ashburton businesses were aware of the opportunities the rebuild would create, the agency is holding a seminar on Wednesday night. This will include speakers from the Government Industry Capability Network and Stronger Christchurch Infrastructure Rebuild Team (SCRIT) who will talk about the scale of the rebuild and the expertise and capabilities that would be needed. They would also outline the opportunities that would be available to Ashburton through business collaboration to achieve the scale of work needed. Ashburton tradespeople were reasonably busy now with work generated within the district, but looking ahead, there would be serious labour demands placed on the district's resources, Mr Nikoloff said. "It may look like calm waters now but a tsunami is coming. "If you're a local trade business or support business there are opportunities here, but in Christchurch there will be big opportunities too. "I don't think a lot of people in Ashburton really understand the full extent of this and the rebuild resources that will be needed." An additional 35,000 tradespeople are anticipated to be needed over up to 10 years in Christchurch along with another 11,500 professionals needed to manage the work. If Ashburton businesses were proactive, they could secure contracts that would bring work to Ashburton rather losing staff to Christchurch, Mr Nikoloff said. "The quantum of work that will come is unbelievable. "The additional work will suck people out of here and into the city and it will create a very serious local problem; we'll need to become very innovative about what we do." Mr Nikoloff said he was aware of one Dunedin plumbing firm that had bought 50 vans and had put 50 plumbers on the road. "They saw the opportunity; that's the scale of work we're talking about. "The people needed to do this work have to come from somewhere and price will dictate where they come from. "It's important for business people to get their heads around the landscape and what will happen. "When the demand comes it will also start sucking in smart, intelligent people who will be happy to work as unskilled labour. "That's not scaremongering, that's the reality." The rebuild seminar will be held at the Ashburton Event Centre from 5pm to 6pm on Wednesday. Registrations must be made at growm.co.nz or by phoning 308-0290.
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