Canada's electricity sector needs to hire 25,000 engineers and skilled trades people within the next six years

A new report reveals that Canada’s electricity industry is facing serious labor shortages that could power down an industry which fulfills Canada’s energy demands and employs some 100,000 people.

In its current release of workforce planning report, Canada’s Electricity Sector Council (ESC) has showed that electricity industry faces an immediate shortfall of 1,300 positions every year for the next three years and needs to replace nearly 30 percent of industry positions, or approximately 25,000 people within the next six years, to meet Canada's energy demands – currently rising by one percent each year. More importantly, the rate of workforce retirement will reach 29 per cent within the next four years alone, especially the retirement of transmission system workers is expected to jump more than sevenfold next year and nine fold by 2012.

Report warned that an aging workforce, coupled with low recruiting numbers and a continual increase in demand from domestic and export markets, are converging to create a problem that could impact the supply, transmission and distribution of power in Canada.

"Retirements are likely going to stay high for another four to five years and then take another couple of years to stabilize," says Damon Rondeau, a human resource planner at Manitoba Hydro and chair of the ESC's labor market information project's steering committee. "Part of the problem is the traditionally stable nature of the electricity industry, a long-service, low-turnover segment of the economy. The entire electricity sector grew substantially in the 1960s and 1970s in response to growth in the Canadian economy and these people are all retiring now."

"We do forecast some (more) retirements," says Erin Kurchina, vice-president of human resources for Calgary-based energy distribution, supply and service company Enmax. "They're not excessive and we've been able to manage our staffing levels through redeployments and the succession planning (for all staffing levels) that we've done. We've also partnered with the Calgary Catholic Immigration Society to help us explore the recruitment of international immigrants."

The workforce planning report suggests that the industry must to do a better job promoting itself as a career path at a time when enrolment in electrical engineering programs is falling and competition for skills from other industries is rising. This is includes working more closely with post-secondary institutions to develop programs relevant to the sector. An emphasis on recruiting foreign-trained workers and underemployed groups, such as women and visible minorities, would also help alleviate the crunch, it recommended.

The ESC is also working on a number of initiatives to ensure that the sector has enough employees to meet the retirement crunch. For example, it's partnering with associations, labor organizations and educators in the energy sector and has provincial working groups in Ontario, Alberta and British Columbia working directly with the energy ministries in each of those provinces. The ESC’s Electricity First work program also provides wage subsidies to small and medium-size companies that offer employment to recent engineering and technical graduates. It's further working to create a national HR strategy and is developing sector-specific online tools, such as templates and tracking forms, to help organizations prepare for the radical demographic shift in the electricity workforce.

The Electricity Sector Council is an independent, not-for-profit organization funded by the Government of Canada with support from participating sector communities of business, labor organizations, educators and stakeholder associations. The Council provides human resource and workplace development support to workers employed by the electricity, renewable energy industries and related cogeneration, energy efficiency, and manufacturing and service/consulting industries. Through its research and work with industry employers, the Council is resolving issues such as recruiting and retraining workers, facilitating school-to-work transitions and developing sector and career awareness strategies.

Canada’s largest business association demands for "just-in-time" immigration system to tackle skills crisis

The Canadian Chamber of Commerce, one of Canada’s largest business associations, has released a new strategy to bring focus to growing skilled labor shortage in the country and recommended actions including a robust and just-in-time immigration system like Australia.

Drawing upon extensive staff research and surveys of local chambers of commerce and their members, as well as business members of its own, the Canadian Chamber of Commerce has launched a new report, Building a Twenty-First Century Workforce: A Business Strategy to Overcome Canada's Skills Crisis, at the Durham Economic Prosperity Conference 2008 on November 7, 2008.

The report views skills shortage as a critical economic issue that impacts Canadian productivity and competitiveness. It analysis that labor shortages exist throughout the economy and the reasons for this shortages are equally wide-ranging – economic competition, shortages of affordable housing, high rates of pay in different regions, changing demographics, fewer skilled trades apprentices, change in job skills requirements and lack of mobility of existing workers.

According to the report, by 2010, 75 per cent of all new jobs created will be highly skilled, meaning that those without skills will be hard pressed to find work. By 2010, only 6 percent of jobs will be open to those with less than a high school diploma.

This report's recommendations call on the federal, provincial and territorial governments, as well as business, to act quickly to combat this real threat to Canadian prosperity, especially in light of current global economic turmoil. Surveys of the Canadian Chamber of Commerce's business/corporate members and local/regional chamber managers - along with research conducted by the Canadian Chamber's staff - identify actions in four key areas in this report that, if acted upon now, will do much to build and maintain a competitive workforce for Canada's businesses and economy.

Along with adjusting the Canadian pension regulations, removing inter-provincial barriers to labor mobility and developing measures to encourage greater investment in training by employers, the recommendations of this report call on the federal government to continuously improve Canada’s immigration system to keep Canada competitive in the world competition for skilled workers by (a) benchmarking Canada’s immigration system against other nations strongly competing for immigrants (e.g., Australia and the UK); (b) reviewing and streamlining current processes to ensure that applications are processed within 6-12 months, starting with economic and business applicants; (c) giving priority to applicants who possess skills that are in short supply in the Canadian labor market; and (d) examining ways to do a better job of matching supply and demand for immigrants.

The report recognizes immigration as an important source of net labor force growth in Canada and appreciates federal government for its efforts in recent years to align Canada’s immigration policies more closely with the needs of the labor market including modifications in Temporary Foreign Worker Program, creation of Foreign Credentials Referral Office, enactment of Canadian Experience Class and changes in the Post-Graduation Work Permit program.

Finally, the report emphasizes the need to design and sustain an efficient immigration system that gives Canada a competitive edge in the battle to attract and retain the skills country need to ensure a healthy economy.

Just a few weeks earlier, a coalition of business groups, unions and colleges has called on federal election candidates to debate solutions for the acute shortage of skilled labor in Canada, and recommended various policy initiatives including a complete revamp of the immigration system and additional investment in skills training and post-secondary education.

Industry coalition wants party leaders to debate acute skilled labor shortage in federal election

A coalition of business groups, unions and colleges has called on federal election candidates to debate solutions for the acute shortage of skilled labor in Canada, which is not only crippling the domestic economy but also reaching the point of a "national crisis" if not dealt with by the political parties aiming to form the next government.

The Investing in Skills coalition was officially launched few days earlier to bring the growing skills deficit to the attention of mainstream political parties’ leadership and demanded to get this issue on their agenda for the election.

The coalition, at a news conference and in a letter to all party leaders, urged them to respond to the issue that it said will need changes to policies governing immigration and the employment insurance system, and require increased spending on apprenticeship training and post-secondary education.

According to the coalition, the skills crisis affects all sectors of the
Canadian economy and is becoming an accepted part of life for many small and medium-size businesses, leading to companies choosing to operate with fewer employees and ignore growth opportunities.

To support its claim that crisis exists, the coalition cited, among other things:

• In a 2008 survey, the Bank of Canada found that over 40 per cent of firms surveyed were reporting that labor shortages were restricting their ability to meet demands.


• In a recent 2008 survey of 640 CEOs by Canadian Manufacturers & Exporters, 41 per cent said shortages of skilled workers are an important challenge for their business, while an additional 30 per cent said this issue has become critical and is a constraint on growth.


• The construction sector will need approximately 260,000 new workers over the next eight years.


• The Railway Association of Canada predicts the railway sector will need to hire 11,000 workers in the next four years (33 per cent of its total current workforce) to fill technical positions.
  
• A 2007 Canadian Federation of Independent Business (CFIB) survey of its members found that over 300,000 jobs were unfilled for at least four months in 2007.


• A 2006 Canadian Federation of Independent Business (CFIB) survey found that because hiring skilled workers was so difficult, 38 per cent of its members had chosen to function with fewer employees and ignore new business opportunities.


• The Canadian Tourism Human Resource Council (CTHRC) predicts unprecedented labor shortages in the tourism sector with a forecast of 348,000 unfilled jobs by 2025.


• The Canadian Automotive Repair and Service (CARS) Council predicts it will face annual shortages of between 4,290 and 7,380 skilled workers from 2005 to 2009 and between 4,450 and 8,050 skilled workers between 2010 and 2014.


• The Mining Industry Human Resources (MIHR) Council predicts a need for 10,000 people per year or 100,000 people over the next 10 years.


• Growth in manufacturing will require up to 62,000 skilled workers in aircraft maintenance alone by 2016.

The coalition says that while erasing the skills deficit will not happen overnight and will require a number of specific policy responses ranging from immigration to employment insurance to added investments in apprenticeship and post-secondary education, the scope, complexity and urgency of the issue require political will on a national scale.

Policy initiatives that Ottawa needs to address include a complete revamp of the immigration system, which has a backlog of nearly a million people and can take five years (or more) to process an individual's application; and additional investment in skills training and post-secondary education, especially at the community college level that focuses on trades where lengthy waiting lists of 2-4 years are common.

The Investing in Skills coalition includes 17 national organizations: Association of Canadian Community Colleges (ACCC), Association of Canadian Engineering Companies (ACEC), Association of Equipment Manufacturers (AEM), Canadian Advanced Technology Alliance (CATAAlliance), Canadian Construction Association (CCA), Canadian GeoExchange Coalition, Canadian Healthcare Association (CHA), Canadian Labor Congress (CLC), Canadian Manufacturers & Exporters (CME), Canadian Solar Industries Association (CSIA), Cement Association of Canada (CAC), Certified General Accountants Association of Canada (CGAAC), Certified Management Accountants (CMA), Hotel Association of Canada (HAC), Railway Association of Canada (RAC), Retail Council of Canada (RCC) and Tourism Industry Association of Canada (TIAC).