There are 1.4 million reasons why skilled trades are an urgent and critical issue.
There is a dire shortage of roofers, machinists, millwrights, cooks, carpenters, metal fabricator, welders, glaziers, painters and other trades in various sectors. While Alberta, and most of Canada, has an urgent skilled trade problem, shortages are most severe for industrial mechanics, construction workers, and in transportation and healthcare.
According to recent stats, Canada faces a critical current shortage of over 100,000 certified skilled tradespeople and there are warnings about the situation getting worse in the next five to seven years.
A lack of skilled trades is hitting construction, housing and infrastructure projects particularly hard. Recent Ottawa forecasts warned that by 2033, Canada will need more than 1.4 million new trades workers to build homes, expand transit and develop energy infrastructure across the country.
While fluctuations in the economy are always a factor, especially in the construction sector, tariffs and uncertainty around which projects are going to get funded may lead to lay offs.
Resoundingly, industry leaders and consultants point to a generation gap among skilled trades, as primarily ageing baby boomers and GenXers continue to retire. Highly skilled certified journeypersons leave the workforce, creating demand for certified journeypersons to replace them.
Business leaders, and particularly construction project managers explain that, while non-certified tradespeople partially and temporarily fill the gap, they may not have the skills, problem solving capacity and ability to learn which experienced skilled workers do.
According to Irwin Bess, executive director of BuildForce, the organization that dynamically supports the labour market development needs of Canada’s construction and maintenance industry, “Our 2025 to 2034 forecast projects a significant Canada-wide shortage of skilled workers by 2034, for various factors.
“The anticipated slowing demand for residential construction activity through to the end of next year, and also uncertainty created by the ongoing tariff dispute between Canada and the United States.
“The skilled trade demand profile in Alberta tells a similar story,” he says. “Last year, we saw elevated levels of demand across almost all the 25 trades and occupations in Alberta’s residential sector. Bricklayers, carpenters, electricians, elevator mechanics, home building and renovation managers, sheet metal workers, ironworkers and others.”
He adds another key factor. Many of the major, multi-billion-dollar construction projects that are underway currently are poised to conclude in the next three to five years.
Shawn Watson, a spokesperson for the Canadian Apprenticeship Forum (CAF-FCA), the non-profit organization that connects stakeholders to support, promote and improve apprenticeship systems across Canada, explains, “At a national level, employers across many sectors continue to report skilled trades workforce pressures, particularly tied to retirements, completion rates, and the need to better support apprentice retention and progression through training.
“We are also seeing growing momentum around apprenticeship and skilled trades careers, particularly as governments, employers and industry leaders place greater emphasis on workforce development and economic resilience.”
In Calgary, and throughout Alberta, there is an urgent and lingering skilled trades crunch.
“Major investments in our province are accelerating the need to expand Alberta’s apprenticeship training capacity,” says Terry Parker, executive director of the Building Trades of Alberta (BTA) which coordinates and promotes the interests of 18 local Alberta trade unions whose more than 60,000 members work in the residential, commercial and industrial construction, maintenance and fabrications industries.
“The BTA has been working with the Government of Alberta and with industry partners to grow the training offered by union-led institutions across our affiliated union locals. Many of these projects have been slow to begin due to a variety of economic and international factors.
He points out that Alberta will see a significant increase in labour demand in industrial construction, creating a need in commercial and residential construction, as workers within those sectors begin to fill industrial project demands.
The “blue collar” perception of trades is changing and there is increased focus on apprenticeships and post secondary skills training as popular options.
“The BTA has long advocated for a greater parity of esteem in Alberta for the skilled trades,” Parker emphasizes. “This has been due to a lack of education available on the trades and the opportunities that apprenticeships offer.”
BuildForce’s Irwin Bess underscores that apprenticeship is the primary pathway for many workers to enter the trades.
“In 2024, which is again the latest data available to us, there were approximately 76,000 active apprenticeship registrations across the construction trades. Registration numbers are growing. They’re far above pre-pandemic levels now. “But we’re seeing completions remain stuck at around 30,000 annually – regardless of registration levels. That may be a function of mentorship capacity. It may be a function of economic pressures on apprentices. Or a combination of things.”
He adds that the construction sector will need to look to new solutions to recruit and retain workers from non-traditional talent pools. Representation among women in the trades, for example, remains low (five per cent nationally and seven percent in Alberta, in 2024). The latest Labour Force Data from Statistics Canada show a drop in interest among young workers.
It’s one of the reasons why, last month, the federal government launched the $6 billion “Team Canada Strong” program, to recruit and train 100,000 new Red Seal trades workers by 2030, targeting youth aged 15-30. The program includes $10,000 in wage subsidies for employers hiring new apprentices, $4,000 in interest-free loans for apprentices and $5,000 upon Red Seal completion, and a five-year initiative providing paid entry-level trades work, and training upgrades.
The Ottawa announcement emphasized the core of the strategy is an ambitious plan to build nation-building projects, more affordable homes, new defence industries and stronger local infrastructure.
The CAF suggests some key positives to deal with the skilled trades shortage.
- Encourage employers to hire and train apprentices.
- Ensure projects are funded and procurement rewards companies that are training and investing in apprentices.
- More financial supports so apprentices can go back to technical training and progress in their training.
- Offer learning supports to help apprentices develop their skills and prepare for the certification examination so they can complete their training.
- Improve the quality of training and mentoring on worksites so apprentices can get their logbooks completed.
- Increase the number of apprentices able to become certified.
Irwin Bess is enthusiastic about the significance of the federal government’s Team Canada Strong plan to recruit, train and hire certified skilled trades in the next five years. “The construction sector is very much in the public spotlight right now, given the focus on building major projects, augmenting Canada’s housing stock and delivering the infrastructure that Canadians depend upon every day,” he says.
“Bringing more workers into the sector to meet the specific skill needs of both the residential and non-residential sector is critically important, and a renewed effort at recruitment, workforce development and retention will be a key factor.”