BC's multibillion-dollar shipbuilding win could be a major loss for other industries in the province.
Already struggling to find enough skilled tradespeople, mining, forestry and construction companies are bracing for the departure of the talent they do have as Seaspan begins staffing up for the company's $8 billion federal shipbuilding contract.
Seaspan is currently hiring engineers and other professionals and expects to hire approximately 1,200 tradespeople over the next three years.
"It certainly drains the system in terms of the pool of [trades] people available to take the jobs," said Karina Briño, president and CEO of the Mining Association of BC.
Briño said the mining industry's high wages might not be enough to lure tradespeople to rural B.C. locations for mining jobs if they have the option of working in the Lower Mainland shipbuilding sector.
She added that the shipbuilding contract comes at a time when B.C.'s mining sector is already facing a skills crunch and expects to see 12,000 to 15,000 new jobs created in the next few years.
Keith Sashaw, president of the Vancouver Regional Construction Association, emphasized that Seaspan's federal contract is great news for B.C. and for the construction industry.
But he said the new jobs will place further demands on B.C.'s already-tight and aging labour market for skilled trades. He added that shipbuilding could attract construction workers seeking more stable employment than the industry's project-to-project dynamic.
Dave Lewis is executive director of the Truck Loggers Association, which represents independent businesses ranging from pulp mills to marine towing companies in B.C.'s forestry industry.
He said the forestry industry might lose some tradespeople to shipbuilding, but argued that the forestry industry will continue to attract people that like a rural lifestyle.
"I could be self-minded in this and say, yeah, we could lose some people [to Seaspan], and we're already facing a dire shortage and this is catastrophic," he said.
"The reality is we have some really great aspects to our industry for people that want to live in rural environments, people that love being outside, people that love to work in an environmentally green industry, love to hunt, love to fish. So we're going to draw those sorts of people."
Seaspan CEO Jonathan Whitworth said the company has launched worldwide searches to hire an initial 75 new office staff this year, including engineers and senior shipyard management roles.
But he said he's "bullish" that the company will be able fill its 1,000 upcoming tradespeople positions with B.C.-based labour. He said Seaspan's Lower Mainland location and long-term work proposition will stack up well against Alberta oilsands jobs or "working in a man camp up on the B.C. coast for two years."
"When you have the ability to offer 20 years of work and hopefully even longer, that's what's going to attract a certain amount of skillset that may not be as interested in living in a cabin in -30 degree temperatures. So we think there's going to be a labour crunch, but we feel because of our work environment and our type of work, that we'll be at the top of the list."
Whitworth added that the company received 2,000 resumés in the two months following the contract announcement.
"We were inundated and still are," he said. "That's another reason why I feel a bit bullish on our expectation that people will want to come to Seaspan – because so far, we hear it a lot." •
