Canada will soon have a new tool that will help each province and community ensure they have the right number of people in the right trades.
The federally funded Construction Sector Council expects to release the first of many sector-by- sector, province-by-province construction labour market forecasts in March.
"It will help organizations and provinces determine if there are enough trade workers to respond to the requirements they have," George Gritziotis, the council's executive director, said in an interview.
Formed in 2001 to ensure Canada's construction industry has the skilled workforce it needs, the council surveyed major employers who run large construction projects and asked them about their skilled trades labour needs over the next three to four years.
That information is being supplemented with information from economic forecasts that detail housing projects, and school, mall and institutional construction.
When the forecast is released it will go to committees in each province which will break down that information and make it relevant to their jurisdictions.
"The key piece here is not to develop a forecast by Canada, but to develop forecasts by province, by economic region, and drill as deep as we can because the information is only meaningful at the local level," Gritziotis said.
Some provinces will be able to make extremely regional decisions based upon the information. Ontario, for example, is broken into five regions.
The information will help provincial governments build better training strategies and policies and programs to ensure the right trades are being promoted and beefed up.
More importantly, it will help specific regions do their own planning.
Colleges will have the information they need to offer the right skilled trades programs and employers will be able to prepare for their future workforce needs.
Gritziotis warned, however, that people shouldn't get hung up on the term "shortage."
For example, one region may have a plumber shortage yet a surplus in carpenters, while another region may have too many masons and its neighbour may have too few heavy-machine operators.
"The media loves to hear 'shortage' and, yeah, there are some shortages, but we also know there are surpluses," Gritziotis said. Simplicity sells, but it could have some serious negative repercussions, he said.
If the situation is inaccurately perceived, then only the perceived need is addressed and the result is a supply-side solution: The market gets flooded with workers who are qualified for jobs that don't exist. The training and education system loses credibility and the young people, who put time, money and energy into training, are disappointed.
"You're going to lose them," Gritziotis said.
