Canada's energy and resources sector is keenly aware of a worsening labour shortage, but few companies have coping strategies in place, says a survey by Deloitte consultants.

The 2006 Energy and Resources Talent Pulse Survey, which involved 55 senior managers from the Canadian oil and gas, utilities and mining sectors, said the growing lack of skilled workers is already limiting productivity and efficiency.

"Oil and gas companies are very capital intensive businesses and the focus has always been on the return of capital," Stephen Diotte, a Deloitte partner and author of the study, said in an interview.

"And I think the oil and gas companies have largely taken the supply of labour for granted - and that's where the big change is."

According to the survey, Canadian energy companies have a greater awareness of the impending talent shortage with more than 80 per cent of respondents saying they have discussed the issue at the board of directors level - nearly twice the awareness level over last year.

"What's required now is a fundamental shift in priorities, and it's not that oil and gas companies are not going to continue to be focused on capital," said Diotte.

"But people are going to be a much greater priority because they're not as readily available as they were to this sector in the past."

While many oilpatch companies say they are beginning to develop strategies to deal with the labour shortage, only 18 per cent of respondents say they have plans in place.

Just as revealing, said Diotte, is that less than 40 per cent of oil and gas companies have actually identified the critical skills they need to expand their business at a time when the sector is booming.

However, the survey shows that more than 80 per cent of utilities companies have a defined list of critical skills.

The survey also said that take-home pay and keeping up with the competition on salary increases were far from the most critical "people issues" facing the Canadian energy sector.

Instead, the key concerns included attracting specific types of labour, finding new talent and the looming retirement of the Baby Boom generation.

While blue-collar jobs in the energy sector are expected to be the hardest hit by the growing labour shortage, a serious shortage of white-collar jobs is also forecast.

Greg Stringham, vice-president of markets at the Canadian Association of Petroleum Producers, said there's not a lot that companies can do individually.

But while companies themselves might not have specific plans, the industry is working with governments on numerous initiatives.

"This includes increasing the amount of apprenticeship training that's going on, increasing funding for schooling, looking at immigration policies - there's a lot of work being done on the companies' behalf."

"Clearly the energy sector has realized that compensation-based strategies to manage talent and acquire talent are no longer a means to an end in an environment of demographic change and severe labour shortage," said Diotte.

"Talent programs need to move beyond costly 'band-aid' remedies and evolve into long-term solutions that take into account developing, deploying and connecting employees. In a labour market where there isn't enough talent to go around, the best approach is to 'grow your own'."

The Conference Board of Canada predicted earlier this summer that Alberta's labour crunch is likely to continue for decades, with the province being short more than 330,000 workers each year by 2025.

Pedro Antunes, the Conference Board's director of forecasting, said the labour shortfall will be felt across Canada as the Baby Boom generation reaches retirement age.

"Certainly with the boom in energy ... this is a sector that's feeling a pinch earlier perhaps than others," Antunes said from his Ottawa office. "But we think this is across the board."

Other parts of Canada will also be affected by Alberta drawing workers to feed the energy-fuelled economy.

More than 42,000 people migrated to Alberta last year from other provinces and that number is expected to be even higher this year.

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