Building the construction workforce

My column on Saturday made the case for a substantial increase in the size of the trades workforce in NB. I feel like Captain Obvious discussing this - the structural lack of housing has been at the fore of the public debate in NB and across the country for at least the last two years. Much of the focus is on the planning, costs, financing, etc. but if you want to double housing you need to essentially double the related workforce (not entirely).

Anyway, after I submitted the column I had a good talk with someone at PETL and there are some important initiatives underway including efforts to bring internationally trained construction workers - and not onesy and twosy - I believe the goal was 1,000 in the near future. There are also many initiatives to get NBers interested in the trades.

I hope to get the Minister/DM of PETL on the Insights podcast to discuss this in the near future.