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Ottawa – Canada faces a drastic labour shortage and governments and the private sector must take steps to train and employ people who have been left out of the workforce in the past, Human Resources and Development Minister Monte Solberg says.
“I think it’s inevitable there will be some difficult times ahead because there won’t be the enough workers to run our society the way we have always run it,” Solberg told CEP News on Monday following a speech to the Regina & District Chamber of Commerce, where he sketched out a dire picture for Canada’s labour force.
“Our demographics are working against us. Baby boomers are set to retire and our low birth rate means demand for workers will soon outstrip the supply,” Solberg said in a prepared speech to the Chamber.
Solberg said that in the last 50 years, the Canadian labour force had expanded nearly 200% and that expansion had helped drive the national economy, but he added that dizzying rise in workers is gone.
“Going forward, over the next 50 years, including immigration, the labour force is projected to increase by just 11%,” he said.

Far from being a future danger to the economy, the flagging supply of workers is already making its impact felt, he said, pointing to a recent PriceWaterhouseCoopers survey that found 60% of companies believe a shortage of qualified workers is slowing their growth. Infrastructure work in British Columbia has been delayed because of the lack of workers, he said, and pointed out the opening of a trades school in British Columbia had to be delayed because there weren’t enough skilled tradespeople to finish its construction.
“Within the next decade, Alberta faces a potential shortfall of 100,000 workers. Estimates are that British Columbia will be short 350,000 workers,” Solberg told the Chamber.
Solberg touted a number of government programs aimed at increasing the participation in the workforce of aboriginals, a population he says has struggled with difficult circumstances. Solberg said the hardships faced by many aboriginal communities in Canada could be partly addressed with emerging work opportunities in the mining, energy and forestry sectors, but he added those same opportunities could help address the problems of other disadvantaged segments of Canadian society, such as the disabled and older workers.
However, he said those workers sometimes need training to take advantage of those opportunities.
Solberg said Canadian firms also need to do more to train workers, noting U.S. firms spend about $300 more per worker on training than their Canadian counterparts and that Canada ranks well down the list of OECD countries in terms of on-the-job training spending.
“I think that explains at least some of the productivity gap between us and the Americans,” he said. “We are going to feel a pinch, which is why we’ve got to encourage as many people as we can to get into the workforce.”
By Sean McKibbon, smckibbon@economicnews.ca, edited by Nancy Girgis, ngirgis@economicnews.ca
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