Labour minister visits Hamilton, calls construction worker shortage a ‘top priority’

Canada’s labour minister says addressing a serious shortage of skilled trades workers is one of the federal government’s “top priorities.”

Seamus O’Regan has toured a job site in downtown Hamilton, where the Labourers International Union of North America (LIUNA) is building almost 600 rental units within two towers across King Street from Gore Park.

Joe Mancinelli, international vice-president, says LIUNA lone needs 30,000 workers “yesterday” across Ontario.

“What we have seen in the past several months is definitely a huge concern in the industry, about whether or not some projects can be started, and whether or not they can be finished on time,” Mancinelli said.

He added that there are also concerns about whether projects can be finished on budget, primarily because of supply chain issues.

O’Regan agreed that the construction worker shortage is “holding back this country,” adding that “anybody who’s interested, we want to train them.”

He said that the federal government is working hand in glove with organizations such as LIUNA, and has doubled the budget for union training centres.

Mancinelli agreed that “through our training centres, we’re training a ton of young people — folks that need to be retrained, women, Indigenous folks. We’re doing that already but it’s not enough.”

“Clearly, we need to get a lot of people into the industry fairly quickly,” Mancinelli said, adding that this would require more immigration.

“The key, though, is to make sure that immigration is ready to come and work in the trades.”