The president of the Northwest Territories & Nunavut Construction Association (NNCA) says one of the top concerns in the construction industry in both Nunavut and the Northwest Territories continues to be the shortage of qualified personnel. 

鈥淭here's been a hollowing out of the pool of talent. So there is lots of competition for qualified tradesmen, both north and south,鈥� David Tucker said. 鈥淭here's lots of qualified tradesmen that have retired around the Covid time, and there's quite a few apprentices, but that middle group of experienced tradesmen seems to be lacking everywhere.鈥� 

As a result, Tucker said meeting the infrastructure needs of the governments of Nunavut and the NWT, along with the federal government and private developers, is becoming increasingly difficult for construction companies.

鈥淚t's much more challenging to find the human resources necessary. There's also supply chain issues all over the place. Tariffs didn't help. Covid didn't help. 

鈥淟ots and lots of things have impacted the supply chain. So the ability of construction companies to reliably find the materials necessary to build these projects has become more and more challenging.

鈥淎nd the supply chain affects everybody equally. It's not a unique problem for either jurisdiction,鈥� Tucker added.

Logistics and housing challenges

The logistics of delivering construction materials to 黑料吃瓜网 destinations adds to the challenge, he said. The reliability of transportation corridors due to permafrost melt and the length of time winter roads are open has also challenged the timely flow of goods, especially in the NWT, according to Tucker. 

In Nunavut, he said the lack of roadways means transportation of goods relies heavily on the sealift.

鈥淚n both jurisdictions, the construction season is driven by accessibility. So road-connected communities, in some ways, are easier, because you can get your materials to site early enough that you can start early in the season. 

鈥淪ealift often drives when you can deliver your materials to site in Nunavut, and that's the earliest you can really start construction.鈥�

鈥淎nother really challenging issue is finding accommodations for our personnel when we are on construction sites,鈥� Tucker explained. "When we're doing construction in a smaller community like Sanikiluaq, for instance, sometimes it is awfully difficult to find accommodations locally to get the work done. 

鈥淪o I think in a broad sense, those are kind of the challenges the industry is facing,鈥� Tucker said. 

Finding solutions

With the need for new infrastructure not slowing down, Tucker said solutions must be found to keep up with demand. 

鈥淲e are at the very beginning of conversations with governments as to how we can address these issues,鈥� Tucker said. 鈥淲e, as an association, have had conversations with representatives or consultants working for the GNWT and the GN to talk about some of these issues and how we might approach solving some of these challenges.鈥�

Tucker said cash flow and the aversion to risk means construction companies are finding it much more difficult to finance some projects. 

鈥淭he length of time between when material has to be ordered and shipped on sealift before it can be billed, and then the amount of time it takes to get those bills approved and paid can be quite long, and I think there's an opportunity for conversation there as well.鈥�

Because the summer season is short, Tucker said efficiency is key in construction.

鈥淭he goal is to get the building erected, and the foundation and the building complete with the building envelope," he said. 鈥淵ou want to get that done when it's seasonable weather. After that, you can work indoors, and then the weather isn't impacting you anymore.鈥�

Tucker said while government apprentice programs are helpful, optimization is still needed to coordinate them, which can be somewhat difficult.

鈥淲hen you're working in a very competitive environment on your project, an apprenticeship takes four years, and if you've got apprentices in a small community, and they're not really willing to move from the community and to travel outside of the community, it's very difficult to get them through the entire apprenticeship program on a single project,鈥� he said.

鈥淚f our goal is to produce more apprentices and provide those opportunities in some of these smaller communities, a higher level of coordination between contractors and the government would probably help us accomplish that a little bit better.

鈥淎t this point, the coordination is between an individual contractor and the government. There isn't a coordination across contractors and the government,鈥� he said.

Such coordination would mean that when apprentices finish working with a contractor in a community but aren't moving on to another location with the same contractor, they should be able to transfer immediately to the next contractor working in that community, Tucker said.

Mental work built in

In terms of the types of infrastructure required, Tucker said working in the North is interesting because of the variety in buildings being constructed. Power generation facilities, water treatment plants, air terminal buildings, schools and RCMP buildings are among the structures that the construction industry provides. 

Without qualified workers, however, Tucker said the task of adding new infrastructure will be a challenge. 

鈥淚 think we've seen cycles of career options where we kind of went away from blue-collar work for a while, and everybody needed a degree. 

鈥淎nd I hope we're moving into a phase where we understand that the blue-collar work that is construction is actually mental work as well. They're highly sophisticated professionals when they're done, and it's an attractive career opportunity, and it doesn't have to preclude you from a higher education. 

鈥淵ou can marry the two things together. You get your education and get paid from day one,鈥� Tucker said.

For more stories on the construction industry in the North, click here.