Promoting Human Technology

Peter Wheatley, Director of Preconstruction, Metro-Can Construction

The construction industry is one of our economy's most exciting and dynamic drivers, shaping our city skylines, creating and enhancing how we interact with neighborhoods, and redefining how we live our day-to-day lives. It is, therefore, no surprise that technology is heavily intertwined with our industry, offering solutions to further the promise of three-dimensional, interactive design, longer-lasting materials, and building with a higher level of accuracy and safety than ever before. 

Industry magazines and social media platforms are full of sexy ads or short videos featuring leading-edge design tools and building materials to create the structures within which we live, work and recreate. With stunning photography or incredible drone video footage, the marketing media is inspiring and stimulates our minds like never before. And while investments in design technology and high-level manufacturing add value to the architecture surrounding us, the need for skilled people to build the things we create cannot be ignored. We need to pay more attention to the declining availability of quality workers and the mentors that lead them to keep up with the feverish pace of our technological progress. 

So how did we get here? Why are trade contractors increasingly at a loss for skilled people in the field? Are we doing enough to promote training for skilled labour to do what we do? Are there enough incentives to attract new employees to the trades? Who should be leading that charge? The labour challenge has become more apparent in the past dozen years or so, and all indications are that it is likely to get worse before it gets better.

We’ve known for a long time that the biggest demographic influencers of the industry and most others in North America over the past 70+ years have been the ‘Baby Boomer generation. This massive influx of post-war humans has affected every aspect of our society, from swing sets to schools and infrastructure. 

As this generation matured, the baby boomers became our entrepreneurs, politicians, and business leaders. The trends of this influential demographic have shaped every industry. 

To this point, the rate of change within this important economic driving force has been somewhat predictable, allowing time for markets and industry to adjust and react to pave the road ahead of them. But as we are now witnessing, this group is reaching retirement age, and their influence is beginning to shift out of our industry and into retirement, leaving the opportunity for younger generations to step into the space the boomers left behind. This also means we’re losing experienced mentors, and experience is critical to how we construct our buildings skillfully and safely. 

This problem is not unique to the construction industry. Auto manufacturing is also clamoring for skilled workers for their assembly plants as technology changes and new spin-off industries emerge. These changes have been influenced by a global need for governments to reach net-zero targets for energy consumption.

“We need to pay more attention to the declining availability of quality workers and the mentors that lead them to keep up with the feverish pace of our technological progress“

Healthcare has suffered tremendously through the COVID years, leaving a wake of vacancies for nurses, doctors, and support staff. Not only are we feeling the pain from the declining availability of medical professionals, but the aging population is also creating a huge demand for assisted living and end-of-life care.

The travel industry still is well below capacity without enough staff for restaurants, hotels, and other destination travel activities to feed the demand of an affluent population. 

These are just a few examples of industries competing for new and young workers. And as young adults emerge from high school and post-secondary institutions, many choose career paths that provide the best work-life balance, including working from home, changing workplace demand from a traditional commuting model to a much shorter travel distance – the kitchen table.

The BC Government has recently published a labour market outlook with projections over the next ten years, which estimates that 636,000 workers will leave the workforce over the coming decade, with only 474,000 young people entering the workforce to replace them. Construction jobs are among the top 5 industry groups competing for these new workers, with healthcare and science & technology having the greatest levels of projected vacancy. The numbers are daunting, and there is no doubt that the cost of building, and real estate development as a whole, will be influenced by competition for new career-minded people by trades, general contractors, and developers alike.

So how do we attract these people to our industry? How can we promote the excitement of real estate development jobs that are long-lasting and financially attractive? Should the provincial and federal government lead the charge with grants and free trade school education, or should that be the responsibility of companies who hire the people they need? Maybe it’s a combination of both.

It goes without saying that government incentives will be determined by what the government of the day deems the most beneficial return on investment or the most desirable to their constituents. A weighted model of government incentives to industries with the greatest need would make sense, but as we have seen with every political party change, so too does the priority of their financial investment. In this writer’s opinion, we can’t afford to wait for the government to solve this increasingly challenging dilemma. We need to become more creative in attracting the labour we need in a sustainable way for decades to come.