When Andrew Swan saw the province of Manitoba's latest population numbers, his staffers had to stop him from dancing in the streets.

"I have a sore wrist from doing cartwheels after I saw the numbers," jokes Swan, the province's minister of competitiveness, training and trade.

"We're happy - we now have the greatest population growth in Manitoba that we've seen in over a quarter of a century."

Indeed, Manitoba gained more than 13,000 people in 2007 - the second-highest growth the province has seen since 1972. For a province more accustomed to losing workers west and east, the turnaround is a cause for celebration.

Manitoba government minister Andrew Swan is happy to see a change in immigration trends.

"It's truly historic and we expect it's a trend that will only continue," Swan says.

The trend follows an aggressive international immigration program and, somewhat surprisingly, inter-provincial migration. After decades of losing some of its best and brightest, Manitoba is now proud to say it's finally poaching workers from other provinces.

"We usually hear about (Manitobans) going to Alberta, but last quarter it was the opposite - we actually gained people from Alberta," says Swan.

With business booming, nowhere is the labour shortage more apparent than in Western Canada.

Unemployment is at an all-time low and to keep their economies growing, Manitoba and its western neighbours are actively - and aggressively - trying to woo workers their way.

"There are all these billboards up in Calgary trying to entice people to Saskatchewan, saying: 'Come to Saskatchewan and you can buy a house'," says human resources expert Gail Evans, president of the Calgary-based Wynford Group.

"There are billboards begging people to 'Come home,' which just shows you how crazy things are in Saskatchewan."

From billboards and radio ads to holding job fairs in other provinces, competition between the provinces has never been so fierce.

"The high participation rate in Western Canada means you can't pull from the other western provinces (like you used to)," says Evans. "Before, when Alberta boomed, we could just go next door, but now Saskatchewan and Manitoba are trying to chase them back."

As a result, many western employers are now focusing their efforts east to Canada's most populous province.

"We picked Ontario because they have a much larger labour pool, higher unemployment and, when you look at sectors like manufacturing that have been down for a few years, it's a really good opportunity," says Bernie Ness, labour market co-ordinator for the Saskatoon Regional Economic Development Authority (SREDA).

Ness recently led a "work west" career caravan to Ontario. More than 3,000 jobseekers turned up to learn about the opportunities Saskatoon employers had to offer.

"There were lineups both days outside this event, which was quite surprising," says Ness. "They knew about the booming economy in Saskatoon, the low cost of living and the great opportunities here."

It was the first time Saskatchewan had a presence at the event and it was such a success, SREDA's already planning another career caravan to Ontario at the end of May.

"This is the biggest issue facing businesses and our employment is so low that we've pretty much exhausted what we can do locally," Ness says.

"If you want to have successful recruitment, you have to go beyond where you're currently experiencing the labour shortage in Western Canada."

As the number of caravans out east increases, employers in the west are also developing new strategies to hold on to workers once they find them - no easy task in such a competitive market.

"Employers are really having to be more creative," says Evans, who has been giving seminars across Western Canada on how to attract and retain workers.

"It's now more of an employee's market, so they can make all sorts of demands and decide which employer is going to give them more of what they want."

So far this year, seminars in Regina, Vancouver and Alberta have attracted hundreds of interested employers.

The next seminar, to be held in Winnipeg the first week of May, will look at how Manitoba - the least booming of the booming western provinces - can compete with its richer counterparts.

"Manitoba has to use strategies other than just cash," Evans says. "Some of that has been the environment of the city itself, what activities are available, a lower cost of living and perhaps a slower pace of life. The rest is what the employer can do to keep workers happy."

Among the things employers everywhere can do in lieu of cash: Offer more vacation time; provide greater workplace flexibility; and have a clear career-development path for workers.

"We've found that training and education encourages people to stay," says Evans. "Developing career paths and skills is important to people and it has a large impact on job satisfaction."

Evans says it's all about determining what your employees want and then rewarding them.

"Organizations really need to see what will make their people happy - some people like more time off, others want greater flexibility," she says.

"One size doesn't fit all, so employers really need to look at what they can offer to make themselves more attractive."

Manitoba is also marketing "lifestyle.”

The province can't compete with B.C. on weather, Alberta on salaries or Saskatchewan on economic growth - but it can undercut them all on the cost of living.

"Dollar-wise, they may not make as much as they did in Alberta, but standard of living-wise, they're ahead of the game," says Swan. "It's a good quality of life and we can provide the lifestyle many Canadians want."

Saskatchewan's also selling lifestyle - trying to entice workers west with the dream of affordable home ownership.

"I thought it was going to be quite a challenge, but people were really receptive," says Ness. "The people I talked to in Toronto said they had to work six days a week and have several roommates just to make ends meet. For them, it wasn't a hard sell."

What used to be an even harder sell - getting people to leave the ocean, mountains, and mild weather of B.C. behind - is also getting a lot easier.

"If the person in Vancouver has been living in a one-room apartment despite having a good job, or commuting an hour to work each way from Surrey, it's actually easier than it ever has been to convince them to give Winnipeg or Brandon or another Manitoba community a try," says Swan.

To sweeten the deal, Manitoba is now offering a 60-per-cent tuition rebate to anyone graduating from university or college in 2007 and beyond. The location of the post-secondary institution doesn't matter - as long as the person comes to Manitoba to work, and pays taxes, they'll get a big chunk of their tuition back.

On a typical $12,000 four-year arts degree, Manitoba's new tuition-fee income-tax rebate would be just over $7,000. A nursing graduate who paid $19,000 in tuition would get more than $11,000 back and an average medical tuition of $40,000 could see a $24,000 reimbursement.

"It's going to be good for retaining and attracting highly skilled Manitobans," Swan says. "We expect it will be a good incentive for people who go to school elsewhere to come here."

As the western provinces push to brand themselves in marketing campaigns across the country, experts say any edge a province has can help.

For its part, Manitoba's happy to finally be holding its own.

"The word is getting out," says Swan. "It's maybe taken longer than we wanted, but the word is getting out and the future is bright."

Average house prices

l Victoria $597,176
l Vancouver $918,593
l Calgary $474,513
l Edmonton $387,632
l Regina $204,459^
l Saskatoon $264,269^
l Brandon $171,000
l Winnipeg $213,978
l Toronto (GTA) $380,338
l Ottawa $312,811
^ Feb. average. March not available
Sources:Various real estate boards