Ottawa’s $6B skills push pits miners vs builders

Ottawa’s $6-billion (US$4.4-billion) push into skilled trades aims to ease a looming labour crunch, but it’s uncertain how much of the spending will reach mining – an industry already scrambling for electricians, mechanics and heavy equipment technicians.

Prime Minister Mark Carney last week outlined a five-year package to train 80,000 to 100,000 workers in skilled trades. The program, called Team Canada Strong, includes $2 billion for paid apprenticeships, including up to $10,000 towards a first-year salary.

“Any government program in place to help support growing the skilled trades pipeline will help the mining sector – there’s no doubt about it,” Ryan Montpellier, executive director of the labour-market tracker Mining Industry Human Resources Council, said in an interview. “But this package focuses a bit more primarily on the housing and infrastructure construction projects, and mining competes for the same pool of workers.”

The council, funded by industry and government, argues the skills development need is real and growing. Mining employment has risen about 50% over the past five years, Montpellier said, while the industry faces an aging workforce, with about one in five workers now over 55. Some 250,000 workers are needed over the next decade spanning everything from engineers and geoscientists to skilled trades and production roles, according to a council forecast due for release this month.

Critical skills

The council estimates skilled trades account for 15% to 20% of mining’s labour force in Canada, so about 65,700, to 87,600 out of a total that the federal government pegged at 438,000 in 2024.

Ottawa’s program plans $331 million to speed up training and certification, including support for union-run training centres. It has $3.4 billion to encourage participation, including a $5,000 completion bonus and a $400 weekly top-up during mandatory in-class training, for total support of up to $16,000 per apprentice.

Ottawa said the plan aims to cut certification timelines by half by digitizing parts of the Red Seal process – Canada’s interprovincial standard for many trades — including online exams, digital logbooks and a single national registered apprenticeship number.

That matters because mines are competing directly with housing, infrastructure and energy projects for the same workers, often in the same regions, and while Team Canada Strong targets trades like electricians, millwrights and heavy equipment technicians, mining could end up eligible on paper but squeezed in practice if funding flows towards construction-heavy pipelines without explicitly supporting mine builds and operations.

The Canadian Apprenticeship Forum welcomed the federal investment but warned the payoff hinges on execution.

“The focus on supporting apprentices through to completion is an important step forward,” CEO France Daviault said in an April 28 release. “Now the focus must turn to implementation and ensuring that these investments translate into a system that is more accessible, efficient, and responsive to the needs of both apprentices and employers.”

Union support

The federal plan has been endorsed by several large construction unions, government officials said in an emailed reply to questions. The groups have members working in mining, such as the International Union of Operating Engineers, the International Brotherhood of Electrical Workers, the Iron Workers and LiUNA Canada, the Canadian arm of the Labourers’ International Union of North America, a construction and industrial workers’ union.

More information on eligibility and how the program will be administered for specific industries will be released “in due course,” the ministry said.

Unlike mining-specific roles such as underground miner, driller, blaster or mineral processing operator, which companies and the industry often train internally, many tradespeople move between sectors as wages and project schedules shift.

That mobility is exactly what worries mine operators and contractors watching Ottawa’s housing and infrastructure agenda, Montpellier said. Even if the trades package increases the overall supply of apprentices and journeypersons, the near-term effect could be heightened competition.

Becoming Red Seal certified can take four, five or six years depending on the trade, meaning the pipeline won’t swell overnight. In the meantime, projects that can offer steady urban work, predictable rotations or quicker access to hours could pull talent away from mine sites that rely on fly-in/fly-out schedules, remote camps and long-distance travel.

Likewise, measures such as  enhanced labour-mobility tax deductions and write-offs for travel, temporary housing and relocation costs can be meaningful for tradespeople working in rural and remote regions, he said. Mines often anchor local economies but can’t offer the same lifestyle as city-based construction jobs.

Sector incentives

Ottawa has also been moving toward sector-specific workforce planning in parallel. Montpellier said the federal government has identified mining as one of six priority sectors for workforce “alliances,” backed by a separate funding package of more than $380 million meant to support training, upskilling, mobility and skills recognition.

The Mining Association of Canada is working with Employment and Social Development Canada on a mining-focused alliance that MiHR expects to launch later this year, bringing employers, educators, Indigenous organizations and labour together to tackle persistent bottlenecks.

“We need to get out and talk about our industry and compete for that talent,” Montpellier said. “As Canada ramps up housing and infrastructure construction, mining needs to continue to compete – and maybe compete a little bit harder with some of these other industries.”