'Tightness of trades': Low supply of skilled workers contributing to Calgary home building delays

With Calgary in the midst of a housing crisis, finding people to help build homes is proving difficult for some companies.

The struggle to find skilled workers is being felt across the construction industry, according to Bill Black, president and CEO of the Calgary Construction Association.

"The tightness of the labour market is across multiple trade scopes," said Black. "When you have tightness of trades, you can have longer periods of time where nothing is happening on site."

This creates a ripple effect delaying house completion dates by many months.

The Calgary Construction Association estimates there could be anywhere from 2,000-4,000 positions that need to be filled in the city.

Black said he doesn't see relief in sight anytime soon for the trades labour market.

Ben Pennoyer is the owner of Ben's Electrical Solutions Team, and is looking to hire a new electrician.

"It's been a bit of a challenge," said Pennoyer. "It's hard to get people with the proper skills and training, as well as somebody who's willing to learn and perform with customer service."

Ben's Electrical Solutions Team does residential and commercial work specializing in service, maintenance and renovations. When he compares the market to years past, he's finding the applicant pool is much smaller.

"Five years ago, I'd have 20 resumes within a week, maybe even less (time), and now it's hard to even get five resumes in a week," said Pennoyer.

Black points to a lack of enthusiasm towards the trades as to why there is a shortage of workers in the city.

"Teach people, kids and their parents that if you want to be anybody, you need a four year academic degree," he said.

SAIT's School of Construction knows well students' desire for occupations outside of construction.

An example is what's called "summer melt."

After a student is accepted into one of the school's programs, they give it up when their first choice becomes available.

"It comes time to pay their deposit and lo and behold, MRU opens up more business seats. That was their first choice. So they dump ours and go somewhere else," said Reva Bond, SAIT's School of Construction dean.

In past years, the school has expanded its capacity in programs but according to Bond, the application ratio hasn't kept up.

The school used to have three applicants for one seat but that has since shrunk to a one-to-one ratio.

"If you apply, you're going to get a seat," Bond said.

"We continue to open up more seats and a couple of years ago, we were filling 100 per cent.

"We don't have this fall's numbers yet but it's more tracking towards 80 per cent."

According to a spokesperson for SAIT, the electrician and pre-employment electrician programs continue to exceed current capacity.

"We saw a 10 per cent increase from last year and are projecting a 20 per cent increase for next year," the spokesperson said.

The school expects to graduate more than 3,000 construction trades graduates.

According to Bond, approximately 10 per cent of those will end up in residential construction.