March 29, 2024 – Ottawa, Ontario
Heavy-industrial maintenance demands have been rising in recent years, driven by growing levels of investment in industrial-sector and resource-development projects across the country. As these trends continue, regular scheduled shutdown/turnaround maintenance initiatives, which are required for the safe and routine functioning of industrial facilities, will place additional pressures on already-strained labour markets in the construction and maintenance industries.
Released today by BuildForce Canada, a new report considers the labour market implications created by an increasing number of shutdown/turnaround maintenance projects in several regions of the country that compete for workers with a long list of major industrial building and heavy-industrial engineering construction projects that are either planned or already underway. Key trades affected by these competing pressures include boilermakers, carpenters (scaffolders), electricians, industrial instrument technicians, labourers, pipefitters, and specialized welders.
“Expenditures on heavy-industrial maintenance activities reached $10 billion in 2023, and have nearly doubled in the last 10 years driven by major capital investments in oil and gas, power generation, manufacturing, and resource development projects,” says Bill Ferreira, Executive Director of BuildForce Canada. “As projects that are currently under construction or are planned for construction reach completion, they will further bolster the country’s industrial-building stock, and to these maintenance demands. Our model suggests that heavy industrial maintenance investment level could rise by as much as 25% by 2033.”
These increases could see employment in the heavy-industrial maintenance sector grow by as much as 16% over the same period – nearly tripling the rate of growth anticipated for the remainder of the non-residential sector.
In Alberta, where worker draws based on maintenance demands are among the highest in the country, shutdown/turnaround events create employment peaks in the spring and fall. Spring operations in particular can double labour requirements, while fall operations are generally smaller in scope. The BuildForce outlook for 2024 and 2025 projects labour demands in Alberta to peak around 9,000 workers in May and around 4,000 workers in October. When combined with similar major events in New Brunswick, Quebec, Ontario, Saskatchewan, and British Columbia, peak spring demands could rise to 18,000 workers.
“The heavy-industrial maintenance labour force tends to be more mobile than the conventional construction-sector labour force. The complexity of the work and the skill sets required can often require employers to hire workers from outside the province or even through temporary foreign worker programs,” says Ferreira. “As these demands rise in tandem with growing construction requirements, demand for these workers will increase and opportunities for out-of-province recruiting may diminish. Absent new solutions, employers could be increasingly challenged to address their labour requirements.”
BuildForce Canada will continue to work with owners, contractors, and labour providers to better capture the nature and scope of recruiting risks specific to industrial maintenance work.
This report was funded in part by the Government of Canada's Sectoral Workforce Solutions Program.
About BuildForce Canada
BuildForce Canada is a national industry-led organization that represents all sectors of Canada’s construction industry. Its mandate is to support the labour market development needs of the construction and maintenance industry. As part of these activities, BuildForce works with key industry stakeholders, including contractors, proponents of construction, labour providers, governments, and training providers to identify both demand and supply trends that will impact labour force capacity in the sector, and supports the career searches of job seekers wanting to work in the industry. BuildForce also leads programs and initiatives that support workforce upskilling, workforce productivity improvements, improvements to training modalities, human resource tools to support the adoption of industry best practices, as well as other value-added initiatives focused on supporting the industry’s labour force development needs. Visit www.buildforce.ca.
For further information, contact Bill Ferreira, Executive Director, BuildForce Canada, at ferreira@buildforce.ca or 613-569-5552 ext. 2220.