Young professionals |
Mark Chapeskie, Vice President of Programmes, EHRC
policy changes and restrictions on the total numbers of immigrants permitted to enter. And this includes foreign students studying in our post-secondary intuitions.” Such immigration changes and policy shifts are having a two-fold effect, according to Chapeskie. “We’re not going to experience it right away,” he says, “but it will be an ongoing pressurisation over time. On the one hand we aren’t bringing in as many people with the skills that we need to work in the electricity industry, let alone all industries in Canada. “And then there’s the ‘dirty little secret’ of Canadian post-secondary education,” he comments, going on to explain that foreign students were actually backstopping funding shortfalls in the education system. “So by reducing the total headcount of foreign students, we’re putting at jeopardy a number of our programmes. Only time will tell how that will play out,” he says, adding that programmes are already being cut across the board. “Core occupations have so far been untouched in our industry but there are some subsidiary roles we rely on where we have seen some programmes disappear or reduce,” he warns. “The concern I have regarding foreign trained workers is that many of these people are probably coming in to do a specific thing, then going home or going to another market again. So we lose those people,” Patterson says. “Do we know if universities are looking at strategies to bring more Canadians or permanent residents into their programmes?” she asks Chapeskie. “It costs a certain amount to run an engineering
programme, and foreign students provide for any shortfall because they typically pay two to four times what domestic students pay for same course,” he replies. “So when a lot of foreign students disappear, universities ask can they continue to run these programmes necessary for the Canadian economy, and if they can, how do they fund them?” These are the kinds of questions that universities are
currently grappling with on the engineering side. And the same is true with colleges on the technician, technologist and skilled trade side, Chapeskie adds. “The truth is funding doesn’t match the requirement to
get to where we need to go as a country. And that’s just maintaining status quo and not talking about growth yet,” he says. Patterson believes there will be a time when some sort of private sector funding has to augment these gaps. “It’s a challenge that needs to be addressed and certainly impacts our companies and members and those that support them directly,” she says.
Economic imperative Looking at other routes into the industry, Chapeskie
mentions intersectoral mobility where workers come from oil, gas or construction, as well as mining and manufacturing, facilitated by shared trades or competencies within these industries. And another main talent supply is school leavers. However, Chapeskie believes there is so much more to do to attract students into hydro as a career. “We did a study few years ago called generation impact, looking at youth’s perception of the electricity industry. Less than one in ten were considering electricity and waterpower. It wasn’t top of their minds,” he says. “It wasn’t until we paired our industry with climate change language and addressing it by being on the front line, coming to the table with climate solutions, that you really
16 | June 2026 |
www.waterpowermagazine.com
started to see a conversion in people’s interest in the industry.”
Chapeski says although they rely on it, very few people actually think about waterpower in Canada. In one way, it’s a good thing hydropower isn’t top of people’s mind, he laughs, because it shows the industry does such a great job of keeping the power on. “The more we can collectively bang that drum and
share that message though, the more interest we will see in our sector as a sector of choice,” he urges. “The truth is people just don’t think about hydro as a career opportunity, but we need to do a better job of attracting a much more diverse candidate pool across the board.” Patterson agrees. Equity, inclusion and diversity initiatives are not just the right thing to do, they’re also an economic imperative. “We need everybody to come into the sector, given some of these gaps we’re seeing,” she says. Chapeskie also spoke about how studies have shown a dramatic increase in the total number of outsourced hours across the industry over the past five years, going from an estimated 10% to 30%. “It would be interesting to see what they were
outsourcing for,” he says. “My hypothesis is where you can’t fill a function internally, you outsource for it. So if companies can’t meet an engineering need they outsource. Or can’t meet a specific building need they outsource for it. The point is what’s driving that could potentially be some of the workforce issues we’re talking about here.”
Why work here? Aware that the sector needs to attract more workers,
Chapeskie considers why people would want to work in the power industry anyhow.
Overall, he says, it is still comparably a high job quality
sector. There may have been a little erosion during and post covid, but it’s been bouncing back since then. There’s also high tenure in the industry, about three years longer than comparable sectors, with employee turnover rates quite low. And as an industry that pays and benefits well, wage levels are comparably high - higher than just about any other sector of the economy. It also has more permanent and full-time employees versus contract and part-time. “We do a pretty decent job in our sector there,” Chapeskie says. “These are all good things and reasons why people would want to work here and not elsewhere.” Aware of the need to foster growth within the
workforce, EHRC gives the following advice to help the industry focus on attraction, recruitment, and retention. 1. The industry must invest in deep talent pipeline development to improve attraction. For example, EHRC is engaging with grade six to eight students. This may sound early, Chapeskie says, but unbelievably it is when people start to get interested in a career in the industry. They’ve also prepared grade nine and ten teaching materials and do youth camps in rural indigenous communities for the grade six to eight cohort, in an effort to try and engage with them early on.
2. Focus efforts on recruitment and upskilling of mid- career workers from other sectors.
3. Demonstrate commitments to diversity, equity and inclusion initiatives through public action.
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