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CLRA meets with Minister of Advanced Education

CLRA President Joe McFadyen and Board Chair Bonnie Smith represented members at a meeting with Alberta’s Minister of Advanced Education Rajan Sawhney at the Alberta Legislature earlier this week. This was an important opportunity to discuss opportunities for partnerships between unionized construction employers and the provincial government, and solutions to develop the skilled trades workforce through education, training & apprenticeship opportunities – like the recently announced partnership between the ministry and IUOE 955. Over an hour-long meeting, CLRA discussed how members’ workforce development initiatives align with the Government of Alberta’s efforts to address the labour shortage in the construction industry. We also talked about our Seed vs. Sod approach to enticing workers to our province, and encouraging young people to build rewarding careers in our industry. CLRA looks forward to developing our relationships with our provincial government further, and to convening valuable policy discussions about skilled worker education, training, and economic development with Minister Sawhney and her cabinet colleagues, our unionized construction employer members, and our colleagues across all building trades.

April 26, 2024

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Construction Sector Leads Alberta Job Growth in 2023-24

The Alberta government has released their latest report on labour market trends, based on data from Statistics Canada. Below are some of the key highlights and trends that are shaping Alberta’s labour landscape. One of the standout findings is the strong year-over-year job growth in the construction industry. Our sector has been the leading contributor to the province’s employment gains, with 12,767 more Albertans employed in the sector in the first quarter of 2024 compared to the same period in 2023. This is welcome news to our members and workers. At the same time Alberta’s average weekly earnings were $1,297.76, showing a 2.5% year-over-year increase, indicating positive income growth for workers. In addition, the job vacancy rate in Alberta stood at 3.4%, reflecting a very competitive labour market. For 2023, the average annual job vacancy rate in Alberta came in at 4.2% compared to 4.8% in 2022 and 2.6% in 2019. The strong economy in our province continues to attract people to come west and fill the available jobs. Alberta has led Canada in population growth, up 4.4 per cent from a year ago. International migration contributed two-thirds of the overall provincial population gains. We also saw the highest net

April 10, 2024

The labour gap: Seed vs. Sod

Last week the CLRA rolled out our Seed vs. Sod thought leadership piece, where President Joe McFadyen discusses the merits, risks and rewards of attracting skilled workers to Alberta versus educating and training them here. Alberta is looking at about $22B in investments into our energy industry between now and 2030. Conservative estimates from Statistics Canada, BuildForce Canada, and many other industry groups and economic forecasters suggest this will create demand for more than 20,000 new jobs in the construction trades. This is a generational challenge, and Alberta will need multiple solutions to solve it. CLRA is working closely with the government, industry employers, and trades groups to support initiatives that will help attract and retain existing skilled trades workers and educate and train new young workers in the industry. We are committed to being part of the Alberta solution: from seed to sod.

April 8, 2024

Our website has a new look!

The Construction Labour Relations Alberta website has a new look! From streamlining our content, modernizing our style, to improving functionality, we like keeping things fresh. Check out our new site here: https://clra.org/

March 25, 2024

Excerpt: Board Chair's New Year Message to Members

“Over the next several months, much of our association’s focus for that work will be advocacy with the provincial government and with other industry stakeholders. Politics in Alberta have changed dramatically and permanently over the last decade. As a result, we have work to do to raise awareness about CLRA with decision-makers and influencers in government.

“We have important messages to deliver on your behalf about the value of the collective agreements we’ve signed with the skilled trade unions, about the value CLRA offers to government efforts to attract investment and workers to Alberta, about the need for more predictable and stable investments in the construction industry, trades education and workforce retention, about the impact of potential changes to labour legislation, workplace safety regulations and building codes, and about the need to attract and recruit more people to our industry from underrepresented groups including women, LGBTQ2S+ and Indigenous people.

“As Chair, my only ask of our members this year is to support these efforts.”