A looming skilled-labour shortage in British Columbia – some estimate a gap of 60,000 positions within the next year – has giant construction firms scrambling to recruit engineers and other professionals, both in Canada and around the world.
But one of Vancouver's biggest residential developers says it is low pay, not a worker shortage, that is the real problem in B.C.
"[B.C] is in a project-rich, people-poor environment," said Bryan Watts, president and CEO of Vancouver-based Klohn Crippen Berger Ltd. The engineering firm is ramping up design work on BC Hydro's Site C Dam project in northern B.C., part of $100 million in domestic and international contracts on its books.
"We have three full-time people hunting for graduates all over the world," Watts said.
The company also offers a number of scholarships at UBC, University of Calgary, University of Alberta and Queen's University in Ontario.
"Our biggest challenge is hiring people who are qualified and able to do the work," Watts said.
Because of economic problems in Europe, there are a lot more skilled Europeans available, he said, but this brings up another problem. "There are hurdles involved. It takes months and months to get a qualified person into this country," Watts said.
A potential labour crunch is particularly worrisome in northwest B.C. as BC Hydro begins construction this year on the $400 million Northwest Transmission Line that will run 344 kilometres from Terrace to a new substation at remote Bob Quinn Lake.
The line is supposed to complete by 2014 and will need at least 840 full-time workers, according to Greg Reimer, executive vice-president of transmission & distribution with BC Hydro.
The power line is part of $7.5 billion in capital projects underway or planned across the northwest. But where will all the workers be found?
First Nations
Some are being recruited from local First Nations, according to Reimer. BC Hydro is funding skills training opportunities to Nisga'a Nation and other First Nations in the area, he explained. BC Hydro will also provide direct employment to local aboriginals for rough project work, such as access road construction and right-of-way bush clearing.
"We have about 40 [First Nations] working on site right now," said Tim Jennings, BC Hydro project manager for the Northwest Transmission Line.
Most of the heavy lifting for the power line will be handled by a design-build team composed of Edmonton-based Valard Construction, a Quanta Services company (NYSE:PWR) and Texas-based engineers Burns & McDonnell.
Valard has opened a 100-bed work camp at Bob Quinn Lake, staffed primarily by First Nations, and a second, smaller one close to Terrace.
Home building
Meanwhile, concerns have been raised that a skilled-labour shortage could hamper work on the estimated 8,500 new condominiums planned for Metro Vancouver. The Construction Sector Council, a national organization funded by industry and government, estimates B.C. will face a 50% increase in demand for skilled trades workers by 2013. That means the province will require 60,000 new workers. This prompted a recent European recruiting drive, led by the Vancouver Regional Construction Association.
"We've got to do everything we can to increase the pool of skilled labour here," said Peter Simpson, CEO of the Greater Vancouver Home Builders Association. "We have to look at all the options."
But Nat Bosa, head of Bosa Developments Ltd., scoffs at suggestions of trade shortages in a province with a 7% jobless rate.
"There is no evidence whatsoever right now that we are seeing a labour shortage," said Bosa, who recently completed two highrise towers in Burnaby.
What B.C. does have is a shortage of high-paying jobs, said Bosa. His company is seeing stronger sales of higher-priced condominiums now at its projects in the western U.S. than in Vancouver, he noted.
"In San Francisco and Seattle, you have kids coming out of school and starting with Google or Apple at $120,000 a year," Bosa said. "A lot of people make $250,000 a year. But in Vancouver, you don't have a labour base making a lot of money." •
