If Canadians want to keep our electricity flowing and our economy thriving, we need to talk about the people who power the grid behind it all.
Op-ed in iPolitics by EHRC CEO Michelle Branigan
While the government’s focus on nation-building projects and reducing internal barriers to trade and labour mobility are both welcome and overdue, Canada is at risk of putting the cart before the horse.
Because if we are truly going to build up Canada’s economy, we first need to build out the sector that powers it — the electricity sector. Indeed, a future-proofed electricity workforce is a necessary condition for enhanced productivity and innovation in a world that is rapidly embracing AI, as well as increased digitization of work and our way of life.
Hydro, nuclear, wind and solar energy will make the future possible — from generation to transmission and distribution. All these ingredients will be essential to keeping our homes powered, the AI servers running and our EVs charged. Electricity projects are projects in the national interest and serve as enablers of all other national interest projects, as well as catalysts for expanded trade and economic growth.
New, emerging technologies, as well as the electrification of sectors of the economy that have not previously been electric, represent an urgent need to attract skilled people to the electricity industry. From bus fleets to agriculture, to heating and cooling of residential and commercial properties, nearly everything is going electric as we shift to clean energy. However, energy storage, the energy demands of power-hungry AI server farms and new nuclear innovations are all advances that cannot move forward without a reliable grid and people to run it.
But current electricity production in Canada — around 620 terawatt-hours annually — will not meet future needs. That’s a problem. To make matters worse, the electricity sector is understaffed, with close to 5,600 new employees needed annually to ensure adequate staffing based on data forecasts to 2028. That’s equivalent to 25% of the current labour force.
Which is why we need substantial investments in an electricity workforce that is as resilient as the grid we also need, creating jobs and securing economic success.
In practical terms, we need federal investment in multi-year training programs to help generate the tradespeople, technologists and engineers required to support reliable, clean and resilient electricity systems. We need updated and new academic programs for workers to rapidly accelerate our ability to staff our electrical grid. We need multi-year funding for work-integrated learning programs, increased collaboration and coordination between educators and employers, and alignment of training programs for emergent roles such as wind turbine technicians and solar installers.
There are positive knock-on effects to these investments, which could help us solve another great problem facing our economy — the dire employment prospects for Canada’s youth. At a time when the World Economic Forum reports that 40% of employers intend to cut staff where artificial intelligence can automate tasks, roles normally occupied by students and new graduates are especially at risk. Indeed, a key rung in the ladder of workforce development is starting to disappear, while post-secondary institutions are also reporting the lowest summer co-op work term numbers since COVID, and some of the lowest in their program’s history. But the investments that future-proof our electricity capacity can also fill this opportunity gap for Canada’s youth. So why not solve two problems at once?
Canada, and its electricity sector, are at a pivotal juncture. With climate change accelerating, global energy dynamics shifting and electricity demand growing, Canada cannot afford to lose its strategic energy advantage. If Canadians want to keep our electricity flowing and our economy thriving, we need to talk about the people who power the grid behind it all.
Michelle Branigan is CEO at Electricity Human Resources Canada (EHRC), a not-for-profit that provides human resources insight, programs and tools to help the Canadian electricity industry.