March 2021 Update
The Workforce 2030 Coalition has been growing and actively advocating for the acceleration of low-carbon workforce capacity in the building sector. With more than 50 organizations onboard, our coalition continues to champion:
- Skills development: strengthening education curriculum with green building content and designing new programs;
- Talent recruitment: champion inclusive practices to recruit underrepresented groups and address current labor shortages; and,
- Workplace innovation: transform design and construction processes with new technologies and practice
Here are the main highlights of our activities over the past three months:
Government Advocacy
It is budget time! Our advocacy efforts have focused on mobilizing investment and intra-government collaboration (especially federal-provincial) for workforce capacity for low-carbon buildings.
We have focused our collective budget submission and subsequent consultations on urgent investment in worker upskilling and re-employment for energy efficient building retrofits and new low-carbon construction. Specific recommendations included: (1) support rapid skills training for displaced workers; transition to green building jobs, (2) funding for training centers and colleges to update and deliver content related to high-performance construction, building operations and strategies for energy reduction and conservation, (3) subsidize vocational and professional training uptake for incumbent building sector workers and new entrants to build in-demand skills for working on energy efficiency building retrofits, indoor air quality improvements, and new low-carbon construction.
Do lend your voice to these asks with your advocacy and within your networks, as together, we are stronger and can go further! Stay tuned for the March 24 Ontario budget announcements.
The Workforce 2030 advocacy work is led by Efficiency Canada and Canada Green Building Council, with participation from government relations representatives of Passive House Canada, TAF, Colleges Ontario, HRAI, NAIMA, Ontario General Contractors Association (OGCA), OSPE, RESCON, BGIS and Insulators 95 and supported by funding from The Atmospheric Fund (TAF), Catherine Donnelly Foundation and Ivey Foundation.
New Consortia Projects: Rapid Upskilling into Green Building
Coalition partners developed a new project with a focus on workforce transition of marginalized COVID-impacted workers into the building sector. This new work will help transition COVID-impacted workers from marginalized communities most impacted by the pandemic, prioritizing groups underrepresented in the building sector, especially women and racialized youth, into retrofits and new low-carbon construction work using an innovative process and pathways to resilient employment.
This work is led by Mohawk College, Toronto Community Benefits Network, Labour Education Centre, Building Up and Canada Green Building Council, with the participation of Daniels Corporation and BOMA Toronto.
A detailed public announcement will follow within the next month!
Our Low-Carbon Readiness: Occupational Roadmaps
A group of industry and education sector coalition participants have been developing an approach for accelerating workforce readiness via occupational action plans, co-developed with industry. Over the last months, we have developed frameworks for both low-carbon technical solutions-driven roadmaps for workforce development (prioritizing: electrification of heating; mass timber construction; building envelope), as well as occupation-specific ones (carpentry; architecture and engineering).
Moving forward, we look to secure industry leadership and funding support for their full development and roll out.
This work is led by Canada Green Building Council, Ontario Society of Professional Engineers, Carpenters District Council of Ontario, Athabasca University, Ryerson University, NAIMA, HRAI, ECO Canada and Ontario General Contractors Association.
Thank you all for your interest, support and participation.