Canada’s transition to a net-zero economy could create up to 350,000 ongoing construction jobs by 2050, according to a new report that highlights massive workforce implications as businesses prepare for climate policy changes.
The report from Green Jobs BC projects that investments supporting Canada’s 2050 net-zero commitments could generate between 6.3 million and 9.5 million job years of construction work, said Jim Stanford, economist and director of the Centre for Future Work who authored the study.
Major workforce expansion ahead
The projected job creation represents a permanent increase of 20 to 30 per cent in Canada’s current construction employment, according to the report titled “Jobs for Today: Canada’s Building Trades and the Net-Zero Transition.”
“The expansion of non-emitting energy sources is going to spur a boom in infrastructure and building construction like Canada has never seen,” Stanford said in the report. “In turn this will create millions of job-years of work for skilled construction workers.”
Skills demand across all trades
The construction work will span all building trades as Canada builds new energy infrastructure, retrofits existing buildings, and develops clean technology projects, according to Sean Strickland, executive director of Canada’s Building Trades Unions.
“Skilled trades workers will be indispensable to delivering the energy infrastructure, retrofits, and clean technology projects that this transition demands,” Strickland said.
Economic response to trade tensions
The report positions the construction boom as part of Canada’s economic response to potential trade disruptions. Stanford noted that recent U.S. policy uncertainty has highlighted the need for Canada to build a more self-sufficient economy.
“The massive investments required for the energy transition can play a central role in Canada’s response,” he said. “They will create hundreds of thousands of new jobs, they will better unite Canada from west to east, and they will position us well to compete and succeed in a net-zero world economy.”
Union workforce ready
Canada’s Building Trades Unions represent more than 600,000 skilled trades workers across 14 international unions, according to the organization. The unions operate over 175 apprenticeship training facilities across Canada, investing more than $300 million annually in worker training programs.
The building trades sector generates six per cent of Canada’s GDP and includes workers in more than 60 different trades and occupations, according to the unions.
