Canada stands on the cusp of an era of large-scale projects the likes of which this country has rarely, if ever, seen before, and the stakes could not be higher for our sovereignty and economic resilience. From the passage last year of the One Canadian Economy Act (C-5) to the launch of the National Electricity Strategy, to the recent announcement on a new pipeline, the federal government has charted a clear course. Ports, roads, mines, nuclear reactors, transmission lines, pipelines, wind and solar farms, defence plants: all projects that will propel the Canadian economy forward and create thousands of good-paying, union jobs.

At Canada’s Building Trades Unions (CBTU), we stand fully behind this vision. As the Spring Economic Update (SEU) unveiled in April rightly noted, “Skilled workers … have been the cornerstone of the Canadian economy, leading the way in building homes, roads, and bridges throughout our history, and we will once again need their support to build Canada’s economic strength.” Our 500,000 members are ready to build what this nation needs.

But we also know that building on this scale, in a country as vast as ours, raises complex challenges. One of the most frequently discussed is whether we will have enough skilled tradespeople to deliver Canada’s ambitious infrastructure goals. According to BuildForce Canada’s analysis of 2026-2035 labour force changes across 34 construction trades and occupations, the industry may need to attract approximately 34,300 net-new workers by 2035 from other industries and jurisdictions. These workers will be essential to meet growing demand and to offset the loss of workers who leave the industry during economic downturns.

It is worth remembering that, most of the time, Canada does not suffer from a nationwide skilled trades shortage. Shortages are generally episodic, regional, or seasonal in nature. For instance, unemployment in the industry is currently elevated in Toronto, where jobs have disappeared following the collapse of the low-rise and high-rise multi-residential market. Taking this situation into account, the SEU announced an increase of the annual limit on expenses that can be deducted under the Labour Mobility Deduction for Tradespeople, from $4,000 to $10,000; this will help workers follow the work across the country.

A good start. However, we must go further if we are to make better use of the workforce already available across this country. Right now, poor coordination routinely leads to “project stacking” – a phenomenon in which workers face intense demand for a given period, only to confront months of elevated unemployment once it passes. With the sheer volume of major projects set to proceed over the coming decade, the risk is that this problem will be significantly compounded. Consequently, nationwide planning is essential.

As Prime Minister Mark Carney said in Davos, “When the world fundamentally changes, we must respond with new approaches.”

CBTU is proposing the establishment of a Labour Supply Coordinating Committee: a standing body that would plan workforce requirements for major national projects before any temporary foreign worker intake is authorized. Every project advanced through the federal Major Projects Office should be required to develop a trade-by-trade labour demand profile before final approval, setting out which trades will be needed, in what numbers, and when and where those workers will be required as the project progresses.

Working from those project profiles, the Committee would optimize Canada’s domestic workforce by mobilizing skilled workers from regions of surplus to regions of demand, provide governments, unions and employers with much greater certainty about apprenticeship intake, and identify the genuine, time-limited labour gaps where temporary foreign workers are actually needed. Temporary and permanent immigration levels for the skilled trades should then be based on this evidence rather than broad national assumptions. Canada currently lacks the kind of granular labour market information needed to make these decisions, relying instead on macro-level forecasts that do not adequately capture demand trade by trade, region by region, and project by project.

The need for coordinated labour planning becomes even clearer when one considers where these projects are located. Northern British Columbia is facing overlapping LNG expansion, associated pipeline construction, transmission infrastructure, and new mining developments. Newfoundland and Labrador is preparing for the Gull Island hydroelectric project and broader Lower Churchill development. Ontario has major nuclear work planned at Darlington, Pickering and Bruce. If several of these projects proceed simultaneously, no host region will be able to rely solely on its local workforce, and provinces that have traditionally supplied construction workers may themselves be fully occupied. That is precisely the type of national planning challenge a Labour Supply Coordinating Committee is designed to solve.

In the SEU, we applaud the federal government for introducing a set of important initiatives within the Team Canada Strong initiative designed to attract, train, and employ tens of thousands of young Canadians in the skilled trades. The plan will offer end-to-end support, from recruitment through training to hiring, including up to $16,000 to assist apprentices completing their in class training, and an additional taxable completion grant of $5,000, with the explicit goal of encouraging more apprentices to complete their credentials. With $6 billion committed over five years, Team Canada Strong is a meaningful step toward supplying the workers needed for the planned major projects.

Canada has great ambitions for its future. The projects are taking shape. Canadians are supportive. Public and private actors are willing to invest. Our members are ready to work. Now comes the hardest part: execution. The unprecedented construction era launched by the federal government cannot succeed unless apprentices and qualified trades workers are on site, on time, and in sufficient numbers. That requires more than simply training more workers, it requires knowing where they will be needed, when they will be needed, and coordinating the country’s labour supply accordingly. If we get it right, Canada will emerge from this era as a more prosperous, more sovereign, fairer, and greener nation, to the lasting benefit of generations to come.

Sean Strickland is the executive director of Canada’s Building Trades Unions (CBTU). 

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