| Young professionals
4. Retain talent through retention strategies – innovative if need be. It will also be worthwhile helping older workers to be better coaches and mentors of the next generation
5. Grow all work integrated learning programmes, including apprenticeships, especially in the first and second years. “We have a problem in Canada where we tend to really invest in the third and fourth year but if we don’t do the first two we won’t get to the third and fourth,” Chapeskie says.
6. Invest in iterative upskilling to align with technology advancements.
7. Foster a culture of R&D through greater industry/ academic partnership.
Hydro futures In response to the growing ageing workforce gap,
Waterpower Canada is also trying to encourage people to consider the industry for their futures.
Admitting that it might not be “one of the most modern
technologies”, Patterson says the hydro industry is one of the most constant and believes this is an advantage that will help bring students and young workers in who are looking for a long term opportunity. “We also want to help our members not have to
compete with each other for the same limited talent pool, because this this drives up costs for everyone and can be quite disruptive for the industry,” WaterPower Canada’s President adds. Although more people are needed in the water power
sector, Patterson admits it wasn’t attracting new entrants. She believes hydropower is frequently forgotten in many forums. There’s low awareness among students and early career talent with limited visibility into roles and career pathways, while competing sectors are generally more visible and better understood. WaterPower Canada’s research also found there is no clear pathway into the sector. Even when there is interest, it is hard to navigate. There is no single place to explore careers, information is spread across organisations, and jobs are not easy to find in one place. “We wanted to make it easy for people considering
hydro as a future to find everything and provide a one-stop shop for those sorts of searches,” Patterson says. This is why WaterPower Canada launched Hydro
Futures which can be found at
www.hydrofutures.ca. It’s a national career hub for the hydropower sector, designed to help students and early-career professionals explore pathways into the industry. It connects talent
directly with employers and jobs and helps employers reach more candidates. Other features of Hydro Futures include employee
stories and career spotlights with employer profiles across Canada. There’s a dedicated hydropower job board, help for candidates to move from interest to application, plus advice about developing CVs. Ultimately it helps make it easier for interested applicants to reach out to the industry, regardless of whatever point they may be in their training process. “Collectively we should be able to attract more candidates into the sector,” Patterson says, “and that’s our ultimate aim with this site.”
Just in time One of the things required to help attract more workers
is a constant pipeline of development, to ensure there are always projects coming in to help stimulate growth. Projects need to be consistently growing to keep talented people in the country and know they have a future, regardless of which part of the sector they might be going to.
“One of the things I’ve spoken with government officials about is the fact that our country seems to always have lumpy growth,” Patterson says. “So I think there is an imperative for federal policy makers to look at how we encourage growth to be less sporadic and more consistent across the board. And it’s a big challenge because provinces control both the education system as well as the projects in the energy sector. So it’s a complicated system to manage more effectively but something I think we need to consider as well.” “I think we’re entering a bit of a new era there though,” Chapeskie adds. Previously provinces and territories across Canada gave differing opinions as to the direction of the growth required, but now all of them seem to have agreed to look at growth for the electricity industry more generally.
“So that’s a good news story from my perspective,” he continues, “because it makes it easier to sell the case for more investments in immigration pathways unique to our sector, or ensuring that we’re bringing in more licensed engineers where they’re needed most. As well as encouraging more youth to take programmes that align with our industry, and then ensuring we have the funding in place to maximise the potential of those programmes.” Reflecting on their discussion, WaterPower Canada’s
President admits that although the workforce challenge is still concerning, as she believes: “We’re in time to do something about it and try and turn this ship around.”
Sir Adam Beck Hydroelectric Generating Stations. Hydropower may not be the top of people’s minds in Canda but perhaps this shows the industry does such a great job of keeping the power on. Mae Pon/
Shutterstock.com
Acknowledgement
IWP&DC would like to thank WaterPower Canada for providing the information for this article. For more information see https://
waterpowercanada.ca/
www.waterpowermagazine.com | June 2026 | 17
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