The president and managing partner of Albi Homes Ltd. knows he won't be out of paid work when he steps down as president of the Canadian Home Builders' Association (CHBA) - Alberta at the end of this week.

Allan Klassen also knows he won't be able to stop thinking about the people affected by some of the downright frightening statistics his industry faces in the years ahead.

A major shortage of skilled labour heads that list. But continued pressure for the new-home construction and development industry to cover the cost of infrastructure deficiencies isn't far behind.

Consider this: Alberta's economy is expected to attract more than 75,000 newcomers to the province per year in the foreseeable future. This likely means added demand for new housing. Between now and 2015, however, 52 per cent of the new-home construction workforce is expected to retire.

Allan Klassen

Those figures alarm industry insiders - and should alarm Albertans thinking about building a new home.

But it gets worse. According to Klassen's own admission, the new-home construction industry is in next-to-last place of 36 career preferences for young people.

Scary statistics aside, Klassen is not about to turn his back on the industry issues that consumed between 40 and 80 hours a month of his time over the last year. Which is precisely why his tenure as past-president will include continued support for the One Voice One Industry (OVOI) project he and his fellow board members took to the membership over this past year.

Their goal was to get members on side with an industry initiative (dreamed up the year before) that targets the need for fundamental change in Alberta's new-home building industry, a business that employs 130,000 Alberta voters and pumps $20 billion a year into the economy.

After a year travelling the province to talk to member builders about the long-term benefits of OVOI, Klassen knew the initiative would be approved at the association's annual general meeting held in Jasper on Sept. 22.

But he also knew the real work lies ahead.

By last summer, OVOI (to be funded on a value-added membership fee levy based on an amount per house built) had already earned the financial support of more than 300 new home builders, including several of the province's largest builders, with operations in both major cities.

From here, OVOI will be carried forward by incoming president Ralph Hutchinson, president and CEO of Daytona Homes Master Builder, which has operations in the Edmonton area, Lethbridge and Grande Prairie.

Hutchinson shares Klassen's belief change is necessary - but can't happen fast enough if left up to volunteer board and committee members whose own companies are feeling the pressure of a heated market.

That's why the first OVOI initiatives put in play over the past year include hiring two people with the specific skills and industry experience CHBA-Alberta needs to "actually make something happen," says Hutchinson.

Funded by contributions from the first member companies to put some cash behind their OVOI support, the association hired Kathy Watson as the new director of government relations last January. This month, they welcomed Mary Kenny, director of human resource development.

While Watson is busy building the CHBA-Alberta profile at all three levels of government, Kenny is expected to help the organization identify and implement "more ways to create more skilled workers for our industry," says Grant Ainsley, executive director of CHBA-Alberta. Kenny held a similar position in Nova Scotia. "She's the best in the country and she's proven that over the last 10 years."

Watson and Kenny will help the association target specific goals. "We want to affect policy. We want to change the apprenticeship program (to develop) programs and systems that train our industry, not just the general (construction) industry," says Klassen.

"We have (an apprenticeship and mentor) model already and we want to implement it. Right now, the apprenticeship program here in Alberta is strong, but it doesn't represent the needs of our business."

Revised curriculum that includes formal recognition of framing skills could help the industry meet demand for a critical shortage of skilled framers, especially if the recognition of framing skills included wage incentives, says Klassen. "We have no challenge getting people into our industry. We have a challenge keeping them.

"Seventy-five per cent of the kids that get into our business leave after a couple of years," says Klassen, who holds the industry at least partly responsible for its current situation.

"Right now we have a workforce that has trained themselves and we're responsible for this."

A better-trained workforce is a more stable workforce - and a more stable workforce will help the industry meet consumer demand for workplace professionalism and top-quality work in the new-home construction business. It should also encourage a new generation of Albertans to enter the business, notes Klassen.

He and Hutchinson know the OVOI path ahead is far from smooth and straight - and those scary statistics still obstruct the view.

But with an OVOI road map on the boardroom table, at least this industry is trying to drive its own bus.

(Joy Gregory can be reached at joy@businessedge.ca)