Looming crisis in trades sector.

Kelly Walsh never once regrets passing up firefighting college to pursue a career in crane operating.

"This is the first job I've ever loved," says the 30-year-old Toronto native who guides a 250-foot tower crane for general contractor PCL in the midst of their $132 million construction project at the Sudbury Regional Hospital.

His profession is in such high demand. these days many of his colleagues in the same trade earn between $80,000 and $100,000 a year, coupled with the opportunity to travel all over North America and work overseas. Yet many young Canadians are snubbing jobs that pay $26 to $28 an hour for "new economy" careers in high tech, leaving the construction trades begging for young people to consider apprenticeships.

A shortage of skilled workers has industry and government experts predicting a looming crisis in all trades over the 10 to 20 years as the baby boomer generation eases into retirement.

One Sudbury-based labour leader believes the situation is more pressing and predicts dire consequences across the board for Canadian industry in the next two to three years unless steps are taken to inject new blood for apprenticeship recruiting and unless incentives are offered to the companies that hire them.

"Our country is going to go down the tubes in a handbasket shortly," says Mike Quinn, area supervisor of the International Union of Operating Engineers Local 793, in his blunt assessment of the provincial and national situation. "If we do not start getting tradespeople for industry, this country has a major shock coming."

His local represents 1,300 crane operators in Northern Ontario and about 9,000 province-wide, many of whom are in their late 40s.

The lack of qualified, competent apprentices coming out of training schools and the bad-mouthing the trades receive as a career path, he maintains, will hurt the Canadian economy in the near future unless industry, labour and government team up to establish a comprehensive national recruiting program. That deficiency of skilled labour may ultimately drive Canadian corporations to invest capital dollars on new plants overseas, he says.

The Canadian Federation of Independent Business recently estimated there are 300,000 unfulfilled jobs in small to medium sized businesses, ranking construction jobs among the highest percentage of vacancies on a sector-by-sector basis. And the Conference Board of Canada further forecasts that the country could be short one million skilled workers by 2020 if the current trend continues.

Although the Liberal government had promised several years ago to make the issue a priority, only recently did Human Resources Minister Jane Stewart reaffirm that commitment and urged the provinces and private sector to try harder to turn out workers who can adapt to a rapidly changing work world.

Quinn says the tight labour market, particularly in the construction trades, is preventing many businesses from expanding.

"There are tower cranes in Toronto sitting without operators. There are companies that would like to buy additional tower cranes, but there's no use buying a cab if you don't have a driver."

A survey of skilled trades conducted last year by the Sudbury and Manitoulin Training and Adjustment Board (SMTAB) identified a shortfall of tradespeople and apprentices as tile, terrazzo and cement masons; drywallers, sprinkler and fire protection installers, refrigeration and air conditioning mechanics, pressure pipe welders and plumbers.

The report indicated the current supply of apprentices will not fill the void created by retiring journeymen in the Sudbury region who were at least 40 years old.

Since retirement ages vary among specific trades (from 55 to 65), the report makes clear that shortages of tradespeople will worsen over the next 10 to 15 years.

The industry as a whole has identified a recruiting problem, but hasn't done a satisfactory job in promoting themselves in the schools, says Ron Martin, executive director of the Sudbury Construction Association.

Franco Rocco, the business manager for the Brick and Allied Craft Union of Canada, Local 28 acknowledges it's a tough sell for small companies to train and keep apprentices as bricklayers, tile and cement masons if there's not enough sustained local work to keep them employed.

"It's dirty and physical work. You actually work a full eight hours a day,". Rocco says, "You've got to work outside when it's 30 degrees C and when it's -15 degrees C. But it's hard to offer a job for a month or two - then what are you going to do the rest of the year?"

His three terrazzo tradespeople, all of whom are over the age of 50, are in such high demand in Ontario, they can write their ticket anywhere providing they're willing to travel.

"But in the next five to 10 years we're going to have a problem in both trades (tiles/cement masons and bricklayers) unless I bring in new guys in the next couple of years."

Sharon Murdock, executive director of SMTAB, says there must be an attitude adjustment beginning with educators, parents and young people to erase the stigma to the trades as a second-class job.

Murdock says a lack of communication between industry and educators represents a major stumbling block in addressing the recruiting problem and employers must be willing to take on apprentices to keep the trades strong.

The three-year-old Ontario Youth Apprenticeship Program and the Ministry of Education's Passport to Prosperity initiative, whereby employers are encouraged to start utilizing the high schools and colleges to fill their predicted gaps, has had some success, she says, but more work needs to be done.

But Quinn believes while business has a responsibility to train for labour markets skills, they shouldn't have to bear the full weight of the cost. He proposes petitioning governments to establish tax incentives for employers or at least partial payment of trainees' salaries to expand the apprenticeship program.