An employee works in the blast booth at the Automatic Coating Ltd. plant in Toronto. Like many other Ontario manufacturing operations, Automatic Coating is facing a shortage of skilled workers.Mark Blinch/The Globe and Mail
Factories are desperate for skilled workers
The shortage of skilled workers in Canada's industrial sector is reaching a new intensity, with many factory owners saying the lack of talent is hindering the growth of their companies.
"It's getting worse every year," says Doug Kamphuys at Ellesmere Fabricators Ltd., a custom steel fabricator that makes massive smokestacks and other metalwork for hospitals and waste-water treatment plants.
The difficulty in finding workers such as welders, tool and die makers, machinists and millwrights has long been a problem for industrial companies, such as those clustered along Nugget Ave. in the Toronto suburb of Scarborough, where Ellesmere Fabricators is located. But now, as the industrial work force turns increasingly grey, the skilled-worker shortage has become the top concern for many factory owners. A recent survey by the Ontario Skilled Trades Alliance reported that 41 per cent of employers would hire more people if they could find those with the skills they needed. Full story
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Tokyo Smoke goes public as cannabis companies eye retail
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