N.S. government plan will recruit, retain and train more skilled trades workers

The Nova Scotia government is taking action to increase the number of skilled trades workers in the province.

“We can’t build and have the province that we deserve without skilled trade professionals,” Premier Tim Houston said during a Thursday announcement in Halifax.

“We need more of them,” the premier said.

“The work they do is critical to our growth and they are in high demand. The way we are currently training these skilled professionals can’t keep up with demand. Today, I am pleased to announce a plan to accelerate the growth of the skilled trades workforce.

“These improvements are bold but they are necessary decisions that will help recruit, train and retain more people to fill the existing gaps.”

The government plan is to add up to 5,000 more new apprentices to the system in the next three years, increase the number of journeypersons and trades qualifiers by 1,000 a year and increase the retention rate of apprentices from 43 per cent to 60 per cent — one of the highest in the country — within five years.

“We are taking two immediate steps today to help more people enter Nova Scotia’s skilled-trade workforce faster,” Houston said.

“We’re changing the ratios to increase the numbers of apprentices training at companies throughout the province and launching a new immigration stream specifically designed to bring in skilled trades to build more homes, more hospitals and more schools.”

The standard ratio is being increased from one journeyperson per two apprentices to one journeyperson per three apprentices in most trades. The province is also excluding final level apprentices from ratios in all trades.

“It will increase the number of journeypersons in trades . . . by approximately 1,000 a year and it will increase our apprentice retention ratio up to 60 per cent within five years.”

Broaden worker pool

The Critical Construction Worker Pilot, a new stream of the Provincial Nominee Program, includes 21 in-demand occupations in the construction sector, largely focused on the residential building trades.

It will broaden the pool of skilled workers companies need and recognize valuable industry experience for these occupations. It does not require a high school diploma, which other streams do.

The actions announced Thursday, at a cost to the province of $100 million over three years, will include:

• launching targeted recruitment strategies to make it easier to enter the skilled trades;
• building programs, incentives and personalized supports to enter the skilled trades;
• putting individualized learning programs in place to support retention
• building capacity to mentor and train more apprentices; and
• implementing faster skilled trades training at both the pre-apprenticeship and apprenticeship stages.

“Our current system, while good, can be better and we need to scale up to meet the growing demands of our province,” said Labour, Skills and Immigration Minister Jill Balser.

“We need all available employers, certified tradespeople and apprentices to fully engage in the system to be successful.”

Balser said her department staff and staff at the Nova Scotia Apprenticeship Agency are continually talking with industry sectors about labour needs.

“The actions announced today are in direct response to the ongoing discussions and ideas from sectors on what they feel will work,” she said.

Trades professionals 

The government says its announcement builds on the previous initiatives to attract, train and retain more skilled tradespeople, including the More Opportunity for Skilled Trades (MOST) tax rebate program, marketing efforts and immigration streams.

“The minister and the premier used the words trades professionals and that is what we are inspiring to create here in the province,” said Trent Soholt, chairman of the board for the apprenticeship agency and executive director of the Nova Scotia Construction Sector Council.

“For all of our 70-plus trades, it’s really inspiring people to think of themselves as professionals in that space and today was really an announcement about removing barriers for them to be successful, to be engaged, to be attracted to our various sectors, to be progressed through an apprenticeship and to then become themselves those trades professionals and to bring on youth and do it again.

“That’s how we sustain the province, that’s how we grow the province.”

Soholt said there was nothing in Thursday’s announcement that introduced new barriers but said some of the significant barriers removed are the financial impediments apprentices and employers face.

He said the financial incentive for a journeyperson to teach their skills is significant.

There were 1,844 new apprentices registered and began their training in skilled trades in the province in 2022 and, since 2014, the number of apprentices has increased by 31 per cent from 5,923 apprentices in 2014-15 compared with 7,772 apprentices in 2022-23. It is estimated that 11,000 apprentices will be needed by 2030 to fill the province’s needs.

Industry input

“The announcement today reflected a lot of the industries’ input and it’s addressing a lot of the frustrations that we’ve had,” said Duncan Williams, president and CEO of the Construction Association of Nova Scotia.

“We’ve had employers that are trying to keep Nova Scotians here and want to employ their sons, daughters in our province and this is another opportunity for us to also ease the ability for newcomers to come to Canada, come to Nova Scotia and to have successful careers, families and put down a life here in Nova Scotia.”

The premier and the minister could not provide a breakdown of how many tradespeople will be attracted from outside jurisdictions and how many will be homegrown Nova Scotians.

“We need both,” Soholt said. “When we do our forecast for the next 10 years and we see generational investment happening across the province, not only are we going to need every Nova Scotian to see the opportunities and seize the opportunities in skilled trades, we’re going to need people to come to the province from elsewhere and this is just another way to do that.”

Williams said the new ratios of apprentices to journeypersons will strike a good balance.

“Every project is going to be different, every requirement of an employer and the relationship with the particular trades are going to be different, so there is not absolutes when it comes to a three-to-one ratio for a particular job.

“This is a baseline,” he said, and it doesn’t change the relationship between employer and the workforce to set a ratio that works for specific projects.

“It just takes some of the administrative red tape out of the situation and enables employers and their trade professionals to be able to communicate and build a relationship that is going to get a job done more efficiently.”