Earlier this week, the Alberta Labour Relations Board published their second new applications report for April 2026, covering the period from 13–21 April.
In the report was an application for union certification.
Local 47 of UNITE HERE filed the application on 13 April on behalf of workers employed by Horizon Camp & Catering
Partnership.
Based out of Ontario, Horizon specializes in remote hospitality services and access solutions. They are one of 4 divisions of the Dexterra Group, which is also headquartered in Ontario.
According to the application summary provided by the ALRB in their report, Local 47 would like to represent all of Horizon’s workers at Cenovus’s Sunrise Camp, except for managers, safety personnel, recreation coordinators, and those employed in the construction trades.
This would amount to 94 workers.
To apply for union certification in Alberta, a union must demonstrate support from at least 40% of the workers who would be covered by the proposed bargaining unit.
In this case, that would work out to 38 workers.
The ALRB has scheduled a hearing for Monday (27th), during which time, representatives from Horizon can present arguments, if they have any, as to why these workers should be unable to unionize with Local 47.
Laura Cote is the only listed in the application summary as an employer representative. According to one LinkedIn profile with the same name, she appears to be the director of operations–oilsands for Dexterra but is also listed as both general manager and operations manager for Horizon.
Should the ALRB approve the certification application, they will conduce a certification vote, which will give all 94 workers the chance to democratically choose whether to unionize with Local 47.
Assuming all 38 workers who showed initial support follow through and vote in favour of unionizing, they would need to convince 10 more of their fellow workers to vote with them in order to win.
Should the workers win their unionization drive, one of their first orders of business will be to elect their bargaining committee, so they can begin negotiating their first collective agreement.
Local 47 already represents Horizon workers in 3 other locations: Birch Mountain Lodge, North Sands Lodge, and Poplar Creek Lodge. They also have a certificate for workers employed by Horizon North Logistics Inc. at their Blacksand Executive Lodge and Blacksand Craft Camp.
Last year, Dexterra reported net earnings—or profit—of $40.801 million.
Because the ALRB does not archive their new application reports, I have included a copy of last week’s report below.
