As industry promises to build, Sask. Chamber CEO wary of labour shortage

While the CEO of the Saskatchewan Chamber of Commerce is feeling bullish about major capital investments in the province’s natural resource sector, he does foresee one challenge.

This past year, agribusinesses have announced plans to build multiple canola processing facilities in locations near Regina, Yorkton and southeast Saskatchewan. Other companies plan to build facilities to produce pulp. This week, the Australian mining giant BHP announced it will proceed with its Jansen potash mine east of Saskatoon.

On the whole, these announcements forecast thousands of construction jobs being created and hundreds of permanent positions.

The jobs will be there but the challenge, according to Steve McLellan, is ensuring sufficient labour to build these facilities and then to staff them. That will require getting people back into the labour market and increasing the province’s population, whether by immigration or interprovincial migration

“There are people who we need to get back into the workforce. There are people we need to get back into the province, and of course, we’ll have lots of workers coming through the immigration streams as soon as the borders open,” McLellan said.

“So we’re confident we’ll find those workers but … the construction phase will put some pressure on our construction sector. But we’re pretty confident that we’ll be able to deliver.”

McLellan said in addition to retraining workers, efficiencies will be needed to increase productivity, including the use of automation in manufacturing and processing.

“We have to do all the things we can to make sure that we have the labour and that the labour is as productive as possible. That means that they’re well paid, they’re well treated and they’re well trained,” he said.

Reacting to the BHP announcement, McLellan was “thrilled,” saying it was a sign that Saskatchewan has an attractive investment climate.

He believes the economic impact will not be limited to higher employment but also felt through higher home prices and consumer spending.

A faster recovery from the pandemic recession is also expected.

“Had we not had these investments coming our way as a province, it would have taken an awful lot longer to come out of the overall economic challenge,” McLellan said. “I think we’re going to be on a very fast track very soon.”