Skilled Trades – The Great Canadian Job Rush
The shortage of skilled labour in Canada has been deemed the most important challenge for Canadian business leaders, according to a recent study.
The C-Suite survey of Canadian executives reports that 84 per cent of respondents are having a difficult time finding qualified and available skilled workers to staff their businesses. According to the surveyed executives, licensed trades people are the hardest employees to find, especially in the service sector and manufacturing and resource industries. With 50 per cent of the current skilled trade work force retiring in the next 15 years, Canadian businesses are calling on the government to make Canada’s human resource challenge a top priority.
One government response to the demand for skilled labourers has been to encourage more people to enrol in vocational training. Whether Canadian born, landed immigrant, or soon-to-be Canadian immigrant, an individual with skilled trade education is highly employable in the current Canadian economy. Human Resources and Social Development Canada (HRSDC) recently launched the Apprenticeship Incentive Grant, designed to help apprentices in skilled trades offset the costs of their tools, tuition, and travel. It also introduced the Apprenticeship Job Creation Tax Credit - a monetary incentive for employers who engage apprentices. The 2006 budget allocated $500 million over two years to support skilled trades people in Canada.
Additionally, the 2007 federal budget committed $50.5 million over two years to make improvements to the Temporary Foreign Worker Program. Canadian businesses have been using the program extensively to fill the abundance of available jobs for skilled trades people in Canada. The improvements involve streamlining requirements, improving protection of foreign workers, and reducing the amount of time it takes to respond to regional skill and labour shortages.
Despite these temporary remedies for filling skill shortages, representatives of labour-tight skilled trade industries are not satisfied. The construction industry, for instance, which has been suffering from severe labour shortages and is bracing for even greater challenges in the coming years, is calling on the government to make fundamental changes to Canadian immigration admittance policies. “The issue is the points system puts more of an emphasis on post-secondary education than tangible skills,” explains Jeff Morrison of the Canadian Construction Association, who has been vocal about a need for immigration reform.
These tangible skills are most in need in Western Canada, where the booming economy is acting as a magnet for skilled labourers, not only from around the world, but also from the rest Canada. Consequently, there are skill shortages from coast to coast. For skilled labourers, there has never been a better time to find work in Canada.
Vancouver needs more skilled trade workers
The British Columbia (B.C.) Construction Association’s says that 50 per cent more workers in the industry are needed to fill the shortage. This represents an additional 60,000 people than are currently employed in the sector.
We don’t have enough of the skilled trades necessary just to carry out the functional construction tasks,” says economics professor at Simon Fraser University, Lindsay Meredith. “I’d poach everything that was breathing,” She added. The CEO of the Vancouver Organizing Committee (VANOC) has also warned that a major provincial construction boom and the 2010 Summer Olympics is leading to a serious shortage of qualified construction workers in Canada’s most western province.
Vancouver- Whistler was awarded The 2010 Summer Olympic Games at a time when “we are not drawing on a big pool of unemployed people,” explains Maurice Levi, professor of international finance at the University of British Columbia (UBC). The labour shortage is expected to continue well after the Olympics, according to the B.C. Construction Association. “We’re very conscious of a shortage right now of […] skilled workers,” explains Manley McLachlan, vice-president of the B.C. Construction Association.
In response to the growing demand for qualified construction trades people, B.C. is now actively looking outside of its borders. “I know contractors that have been to Europe; they’ve conducted job fairs in England, France, Belgium, and other parts of Europe,” says McLachlan. Skilled labour shortages mean that commodity prices will also rise as a result.
The Canadian government has extended a helping hand to ease the labour shortage B.C is currently facing by facilitating work permits for potential immigrants. A new program is now in place that allows employers to identify a qualified skilled worker for “fast-tracked” immigration
Canada’s oil industry, lacking critical manpower, projected to grow nearly two-fold by 2020
Oilsands production is expected to bounce from 45% to 80% of production capacity by 2020. The province of Alberta’s unemployment rate is at a near record low and the demand for manpower far exceeds the available supply of skilled workers in many sectors of the economy.
The country’s production of crude will nearly double over the next 15 years leaving glaring holes in manpower. “Some 40,000 new trade apprentices are needed just to complete all the construction projects planned around Vancouver for the next 10 years,” RBC Financial Group chief executive Gordon Nixon said. “And with Alberta predicting a shortfall of as many as 100,000 workers over the next 10 years, competition for labour will be fierce in the West.”
“If Canada is to succeed in the global economy, we must ensure that the whole country has a capable workforce. And it’s not just about skilled workers for the construction and oil industries,” Nixon explains, highlighting the importance of immigration to Canada’s future prosperity.
“It is not an issue anymore it is a crisis,” says ex-Minister of Economic Development, Mark Norris. “I think we have to talk about the oil sands and the oil and gas industry in Alberta as a Canadian project and start talking about the opportunity [which exists] here.”
Labour Shortage may lead to “Spiraling” wages and make some projects too costly to develop
The lack of skilled construction workers threatens to bulldoze Alberta’s white-hot construction industry growth if the critical labour deficit is not adequately addressed. The Conference Board of Canada (CBC) estimates that approximately 332,000 workers will be needed by 2025.
The report should serve as a “wake-up call” says Heather Douglas, president of the Calgary Chamber of Commerce. Government and business need to move quickly to facilitate immigration and honour foreign credentials the CBC reports. The province has been working with labour, business, educators, Aboriginals and others in dealing with the problem. “Forty-three per cent of all job gains in Canada are coming in Alberta”, she explains.
Douglas affirms that 75% of her group’s membership claim they’re being affected by a workforce deficiency, adding that the C$130 billion in Alberta construction projects planned through 2007 led by the oilsands are further aggravating the issue. Labour shortages may lead to “spiraling” wages and make some projects too costly to launch she concludes.