Amid Prime Minister Mark Carney’s push for nation-building projects and uncertainty around AI’s impact on the job market, an advocate for British Columbia’s construction industry says there’s no better time to consider a career in the trades.
The rise of artificial intelligence has raised the possibility of declining job prospects in some sectors — particularly for younger workers — but Abigail Fulton, executive director of the Construction Foundation of B.C., says “skilled tradespeople will be the last ones voted off the island.”
“We will always need them … that ability to use your hands and co-ordinate and solve problems in real time isn’t going to go away,” said Fulton, who is also a board member with Skills Canada B.C.
Last year, Carney unveiled a list of “nation-building” projects, which includes expanding liquefied natural gas production in B.C.
There are questions about whether there are enough skilled trades workers to meet demand. Fulton says there have been shortages in almost every trade.
“There’s definitely a need to look at the skilled trades as a system, to support it as a long-term, critical component of our country,” she said.
In November, the province announced an investment of $241 million over the next three years to expand trades training in an effort to boost the availability of skilled labour that will be necessary for several major proposed projects.
Budget to ‘unlock’ apprenticeships in trades: Carney
The federal budget, unveiled that same month, included a previously announced plan to pump money into skills training for the trades.
That portion allocates $75 million over three years to expand union-based training in the Red Seal Trades, a list of designated trades that includes jobs like carpentry, heavy equipment operating, ironworkers, machinists and plumbers.
Fulton says colleges and union training centres welcome the prospect of being “able to train more apprentices more quickly.”
New registrations in apprenticeship programs nationally hit a record high of 101,541 in 2024, an increase of nearly six per cent over the previous year, Statistics Canada revealed last month.
Growth was driven, in part, by aspiring plumbers, pipefitters and steamfitters, electricians and interior finishers signing up in B.C. and Alberta, Statistics Canada said, plus people eager to become automotive service workers and electricians in Ontario.
While young people may feel pressure to choose university rather than an apprenticeship, Fulton says a university education may not be a fit for everyone.
She said the average age of an apprentice today is around 27, with one factor being “a whole lot of them go to university first, don’t get the jobs they want, [and] come back to the trades.”
She notes that entering the trades doesn’t close the door to a university education.
“When you’re out doing it yourself with your hands, when you’re solving those problems, it sets you up, and individuals who start off in a trade don’t end necessarily in the trade,” she said.
“They may go back to university, they may take engineering, they take business degrees. They come out, they build their own companies. Some of the most successful and wealthiest individuals that I know started off as tradespeople.”
