I write this column as I recover from helping at an Ontario version of Try-a-Trade during my vacation back home and it got me thinking.
One thing became blatantly clear after speaking with more than two dozen tradespeople across various professions, there aren’t enough of them, and they are getting older.
In less than six hours, 2,100 students explored trade career options available to them. Some trades they didn’t even know existed. Can we see the issue?
Read more: Try-A-Trade works as advertised
According to Statistics Canada, tradespeople made up less than eight per cent of the national workforce as of the 2021 census. Between 2016 and 2021, the number of tradespeople aged 45 to 54 declined significantly, while those aged 65 and older increased by 8,460. Meanwhile, the number of youth, aged 15 to 24, in the trades fell by 31,050.
This trend started before the period captured by the study. Based on signage for everything from heavy-duty mechanics to electricians around town, the shortage hasn’t spared Lloydminster.
Building homes in Canada
Every major party in the recent election pledged to build millions of homes.
There’s between 20 and 30 different skilled trades that work on constructing a single-family dwelling. A multi-family apartment building requires an even larger workforce of tradespeople. Pest control, septic tank installers and even utilities locators are all needed at some point. All of which are disappearing.
This is an alarming problem. If builders must pay more to attract tradespeople, they won’t absorb the costs, the buyer will. Housing costs will go up as the shortage of tradespeople gets worse.
So what do we do to fix this? I have plenty of suggestions from front-line workers, just not enough ink left this week.
Next week, I’ll look at some of the problems identified by frontline workers, followed by their suggestions. Until then, have a great week!
Read more: Alberta launches industry skills grant
