Understanding workforce demand in Alberta is critical for construction employers, and effective labour planning depends on having accurate data. A new report from the Canada West Foundation highlights why it remains difficult to determine how many skilled workers are employed in the energy sector, and how these gaps affect workforce planning.
Western Canada’s energy industry spans oil and gas, pipelines, electricity generation and renewables, and demand pressures continue to grow. Electrification is increasing, which means more infrastructure to build and more skilled trades needed to build it. Understanding the current workforce is essential to meeting that demand, but today’s data provides only a partial picture.
Canada tracks labour market information through two systems: NAICS, which classifies industries, and NOCs, which classify occupations. In the energy sector, both have limitations. NAICS divides energy into separate categories such as oil and gas, pipelines and electricity, which makes it difficult to assemble a complete view. In smaller sub-sectors such as electricity generation, Statistics Canada suppresses data to protect confidentiality, which results in understated employment numbers. NOCs present a different challenge. Some energy-specific roles, such as wind turbine technicians, do not have dedicated codes and are grouped into broader trades like millwright. This makes it difficult to determine how many workers are employed in energy specifically.
A broader issue is that the two systems do not connect. Industry totals and occupational totals exist separately and cannot be linked. This makes it difficult to answer a key question for employers: how many workers in a specific trade are available for a specific type of energy project?
The federal government has acknowledged the problem and has committed $94.5 million to improve labour market information across key sectors. EHRC and Energy Safety Canada will lead this work for the energy sector.
CLRA will be watching these developments closely, as better data is essential for our members’ proactive workforce planning.
