Foreign-worker shortage forecast

Newspaper article

Date

2011-07-02

Authors

Dave Cooper

Abstract

Canadians can fill only half of new construction jobs by 2019, group says

Newspaper title

Edmonton Journal

Full text

With hundreds of billions of dollars' worth of construction projects lining up over the next few years, a severe shortage of skilled workers threatens to chill the economy, says the Construction Owners Association of Alberta.
Across Canada, it's estimated 320,000 construction workers will be needed between now and 2019 because of retirements and the demands of new projects.
Only about half those jobs -157,000 -can be filled by Canadians. The rest -163,000 -will have to be filled by temporary foreign workers. In Alberta alone, the worker gap could hit 40,000.
"The current lull is, at best, a brief breather," said a COAA brief, which was reflected in a national Construction Owners Strategy report released this week.
"Alberta has a small population with a large need for skilled manpower. The province already has the largest apprenticeship program in the country, but it needs to get better," COAA spokesman Larry Staples said.
And while much of the demand for skilled workers will be in Alberta, the rest of the country faces similar challenges, said Staples, who notes that Ontario will spend $30 billion in its nuclear plants, and East Coast offshore-drilling projects could be worth $20 billion.
"It is a national issue," said Staples, who adds the members of the group -which includes B.C. Hydro, Ontario Power Corp., TransAlta, Shell, Suncor and Syncrude -are pushing for a range of improvements from better promotion of trades as a career path to getting more women and aboriginals into the construction and maintenance field.
But while this kind of long-term planning is important, Staples says firms are worried about the next few years and the current slow pace of getting temporary foreign workers into Canada.
"We need more credible forecasting of the future demand, and this is starting to be done. If we know there is going to be a certain need, we should be able to streamline this system."
He said firms currently can wait six months to a year for foreign workers to be allowed in. They would also like the workers to be allowed to work at more than one site in a region.
A recent task force report by the Alberta Chamber of Resources estimated that every skilled worker contributes $175,000 to the province's economic output. But if the workers aren't there, the opportunity is lost.
"This whole manpower issue is really about building the economy and developing our resources," Staples said.
In the past, many young people have stayed away from the trades because jobs fluctuated through boom-and-bust cycles. But that is about to change.
As projects are built, the need will shift to permanent staff who can operate and maintain the facilities.
The proportion of maintenance projects will shift from about a quarter of the workforce to threequarters over the next 20 years, says the COAA.
"The situation will be much more settled, like an industrial operation. The oilsands operations will be like automobile plants," Staples said.
And that kind of steady work might just convince more youths to take up the tools of the trade.
dcooper@edmontonjournal.com

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