Huge Demand for BC Tradespeople in Next Decade: Report

Huge demand for tradespeople in British Columbia over the next decade will be driven by multi-billion dollar utility and mining projects and will require an enormous effort on the part of the province’s construction industry to train and attract suitably qualified workers, a new report says.

In its latest report, Construction Looking Forward: British Columbia 2013-2021,  the Construction Sector Council (CSC) says a surge in projects associated with mining, pipeline, LNG terminals, electrical generation plants and transmission line projects will translate into enormous demand for boilermakers, carpenters, contractors and supervisors, crane operators, insulators, ironworkers, sheet metal workers, steamfitters and pipefitters, and welders.

The CSC says the largest number of projects will get underway in 2014 and continue for several years after that.

Considering the aging of the sectors workforce and the number of baby-boomers, the report says, this will create enormous challenges in securing qualified labour.

Manley McLachlan, President-CEO of the British Columbia Construction Association says industry leaders are looking at a number of long-term solutions, including bolstering training and attracting workers from other industries and provinces.

“We must be as strategic in planning the development of our industry’s labour resources as we are in developing our country’s natural resources” McLachlan says.

Tom Sigurdson, Executive Director of the British Columbia and Yukon Building and Construction Trades Council, agrees.

“Industry leaders are also focusing on continued investment in apprenticeships and other types of training and support systems to keep pace with demand, as well as outreach to youth, women, Aboriginal people and immigrants to address the replacement demand created by the retirement of an estimated 32,000 skilled tradespeople in British Columbia” he says.

As well as the direct demand from resource projects, the CSC report says expected high levels of population and immigration growth will underpin long-term demand in housing construction, where the report says the volume of work will continue to climb until 2017.

The latest report follows a report last year which estimated the development of oil sands would create up to 880,000 person years of construction employment over the next 25 years, mostly in BC.

By Andrew Heaton