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Jobs, jobs, jobs Canada trying to avoid shortfall of skilled workers for petroleum industry Gary Park Petroleum News Calgary correspondent
The Canadian petroleum industry is pulling out the stops to head off a looming shortage of skilled workers over the next decade as oil sands projects create a demand for about 8,000 jobs.
The Petroleum Human Resources Council of Canada is seeking federal government and industry financing to take urgent measures to answer the anticipated demand.
A council report said that in many critical oil sands occupations, more than 50 percent of the labor force is aged 45 or older, and 39 percent of the current workforce is in that age category, meaning baby boomer retirements will put the industry under extreme pressure.
“Based on these figures, it is highly likely that the oil sands will face shortages of skilled workers in a number of areas during the next 10 years,” the report said.
The heaviest demand is expected to be for heavy-equipment operators, process operators, heavy duty mechanics and power engineers.
By 2012, assuming that levels peak, oil sands operators are expected to hire 4,121 of those workers over the current 2,380.
The trouble for the Fort McMurray area of northeastern Alberta is compounded by a housing crunch and a lack of adequate medical and educational infrastructure.
For the offshore East Coast, the industry is projected to need 4,500 employees, an increase of 150 percent, but only 25 percent of the current workforce in that region is 45 or older.
The key factor for the Western Canada sedimentary basin, where 28 percent of all workers are 45 or over, is whether the retirement rate exceeds the rate at which employment drops because of declining drilling levels. “Overall, given the retirement rates, the decrease in projected labor demand (for the Western Canada sedimentary basin) will be roughly balanced by the expected retirements,” the report said. In addition, new technologies to exploit remaining reserves will further reduce the need for workers in conventional areas. Short-term labor pressures Canada’s North, which holds the potential of new discoveries, could face some short-term labor pressures, but the small number of permanent jobs that would follow completion of a Mackenzie Valley gas pipeline eases concerns of a labor shortfall.
The 148-page report supports action to:
• Attract new people to the industry, especially from non-traditional sources, such as aboriginals, immigrants and women, who make up 5 percent, 14 percent and 20 percent, respectively, of the current workforce.
•Develop programs to reduce turnover, especially in remote area.
• Increase enrolment in trade programs and boost the declining rate of program completions.
• Do a better job of promoting the oil patch as a good career choice.
Council chairman Roger Soucy said merely offering higher wages, or “buying” workers from other companies, is a declining option.
“The priorities of the new generations are also very different,” he said. “Certainly, money is important, but lifestyle is equally important, if not more so. So ... we have to be more creative.” Pierre Alvarez, president of the Canadian Association of Petroleum Producers, said the industry can no longer afford a “hands-off” style of human resource development now that it has hit a wall in its development of new specialized skills and tracking labor and employment.
As Canada moves into East Coast and northern frontiers, the pressure is on to train people from local and aboriginal communities, he said.
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