N.S. Construction Industry Needs 12,000 New Tradespeople Over The Next 10 Years
HALIFAX — Long before the Covid-19 pandemic hit, Nova Scotia’s construction industry was staring down a future plagued by a major shortage of skilled tradespeople.
Now, as the economy begins to recover and construction ramps back up, the problem has become worse than ever.
Duncan Williams, the president and CEO of the Construction Association of Nova Scotia, says it’s tough to gauge exactly how many tradespeople the province needs, but estimates 8,000 to 9,000 will need to be replaced over the next five years. On top of that, there will probably be 3,000 new positions created that will have to be filled.
A recent report from the Nova Scotia Apprenticeship Agency puts those numbers a little lower, estimating the province will need close to 12,000 new, certified tradespeople over the next 10 years.
But Williams argues the shortage isn’t something that’s years away: it’s here now, and it’s already bad.
“I hesitate to say the word ‘crisis.’ But we are very close to a situation where we don’t have enough workers. That is a given. We just don’t have enough workers right now,” he says. “If I was a betting person, I would say we can easily bring into this industry 1,000 people tomorrow, with little hesitation at all.”
‘Good People Without Jobs And Good Jobs Without People’
Brad Smith, the executive director of Mainland Nova Scotia Building Trades, says things aren’t so bad right now that buildings are going unfinished, but the shortage is causing problems.
A job site is always an organizational challenge: builders must have the proper tradespeople on-site at the proper time to keep things running smoothly. But when the labour pool is so small, getting workers on site the day the steel is delivered, or finding electricians to do wiring quickly, becomes much more challenging.
“In Nova Scotia, for many years, we’ve been able to say, ‘I’ve got a job opening’ and get 100 resumes. Well, the labor market is much tighter now and people are being much more particular about what they’re going to take and not going to take,” Smith says.
Trent Soholt, the executive director at the Nova Scotia Construction Sector Council, says the shortage of skilled tradespeople in the province is “a very nuanced situation.”
Some employers are having trouble finding tradespeople, while some tradespeople are having trouble finding work. That “skills mismatch” is part of what’s causing the shortage.
“Whenever someone says ‘labour shortage,’ that implies there’s no belly buttons available to do the work. I don’t believe that to be the case in Nova Scotia. We have a significant portion of our underrepresented groups who are not engaged, or who haven’t had an opportunity yet in our sector,” Soholt says.
“We have good people without jobs and good jobs without people. How do we align that? That’s really where I think a lot of our effort needs to be spent,” he adds.
Half Of All Apprentices Drop Out
Smith agrees with Soholt. He says one of the biggest problems facing the construction industry isn’t finding enough people to enter the trades — it’s getting them to stay.
In his world, only about 50 percent of apprentices actually make it through to become journeypersons. With thousands of apprentices currently working in the province, losing half of them is a huge deal.
“If we increased our retention rate and completion rate by even 15 percent we would dramatically reduce our need for new people coming into the boat. It’s not only recruitment, its retention and completion,” he says.
A Big Cultural Barrier
So why aren’t apprentices sticking around?
Smith says it’s a complicated issue, but one of the biggest problems is apprentices not getting enough support.
The construction industry is dominated by men, and old-school ideas and attitudes still linger. This often creates a culture that women and other “under-represented groups” don’t feel welcome—or even safe—in.
It’s not a coincidence, Smith says, that turnover consistently trends higher among under-represented groups.
Williams says the industry needs to do a better job not just connecting with people from more diverse backgrounds, but “actually making sure that they feel welcomed.”
“It’s one thing to attract a young woman or somebody from a First Nation, and it’s a very different thing to keep them engaged and make sure that they’re safe, psychologically and physically, at the worksite,” he says.
He says if the industry ever wants to move the needle it needs to do some serious reflection and engage in a meaningful way with the culture that still exists in some workplaces, and how it’s driving good workers away.
Williams also argues that in its push to drag as many young people as possible into the trades, the construction industry hasn’t always been the best at “conveying some of the realities of our industry.”
“It’s a great place to work and it’s a great place to build a career, but it’s not for everyone,” he says. “We need to have honest conversations so we’re not accidentally steering someone to a career [that’s not right for them].”
Hopping Planes To Calgary
And then there’s the issue of wages.
Smith says tradespeople are choosing to work out west instead of in Nova Scotia because the pay is usually better.
“Some employers, frankly, they don’t want to pay the wages required,” he says.
Workers have a choice where they work, and it’s often in their best interest to spend half their time working in Calgary for better pay than it is to work on a project at home.
“If you look all through the pandemic, if you check the Halifax airport, almost every day there was a direct flight to Calgary. So there were people going back and forth all the time to Calgary,” he says.
He says that flight was almost certainly kept running because of tradespeople travelling to and from out-of-province jobs.
What’s The Answer?
Industry and government are both trying to address the skilled labour shortage, but they have a tall task ahead of them.
Smith says new rules from the provincial government that mandate a certain number of workers on big projects must be apprentices or people from under-represented groups, is a great start.
Williams is also cautiously optimistic about new policies the Progressive Conservative government has announced—although he says he’ll need to see more details to know how effective they are.
Industry groups like the Nova Scotia Construction Sector Council are also working hard to reach potential tradespeople at a young age and educate them about a career in the trades.
The Council’s Trades Exhibition Hall, which gives high school students hands-on learning and information about careers in trades, is a great example.
Smith believes industry efforts to recruit new tradespeople are paying off but acknowledges everyone will have to do more, faster.
“I think we’re doing a lot of the things, [but] can we do them quickly enough and get them through the system fast enough? I don’t know that completely, but I do think we are doing a lot of the right things,” he says.
Williams says the government also has another important role to play: a leadership one. Bring everyone to the table and act as an actual facilitator. Listen to what people have to say and take their advice seriously.
“Government cannot solve this on its own, we’ve seen that this cannot happen. They can’t do it on their own, nor can we,” he says.
Trevor Nichols is the Associate Editor of Huddle, based in Halifax. Send him your feedback and story ideas: [email protected].