Canada’s plan to fast-track major projects is putting mounting pressure on a workforce already struggling to meet demand, two Liberal MPs responsible for supporting Ottawa’s labour and industry agendas said Wednesday.
Leslie Church, parliamentary secretary to the minister of jobs, said the federal government’s push to develop key nation-building projects is making long-standing weaknesses in Canada’s labour force harder to ignore.
“We are out there trying to build -- build quickly,” Church said during a panel discussion at a conference hosted by the Future Skills Centre in Toronto.
“We’re trying to energize an economy that is under threat, diversify to new markets, open up supply chains, invest in transportation (and) build the housing that is at the core of a strong economy,” she said. “All of this creates this incredible pressure and strain on the workforce.”
Church added: “Who does the building?”
She said the issue is not new to Canada but rather one that has been compounding for years amid growing industrial and technological transformation and is becoming increasingly urgent.
“This is a crucial challenge for us right now,” Church said.
She said there is also a disconnect between workers looking for jobs and the industries struggling to find workers, including a mismatch of skills, training barriers and other challenges.
“We are ships in the night in Canada,” Church said. “We have a lot of people looking for work, or with a certain set of skills, but we have all these industries that are also looking for labour, and it’s almost like the two never meet.”
Church said the government is aiming to close that gap through investments in apprenticeships and training to accelerate workforce development, while employers and schools also need to work together to ensure training and labour needs are aligned.
The federal government has made developing major infrastructure and industrial projects a centrepiece of its economic agenda.
The push is aimed at boosting economic growth, attracting investment and reducing Canada’s reliance on the United States.
Yet Canada has an enduring shortage of skilled trades, gaps in worker training and a mismatch between the skills jobseekers have and those employers need.
It’s those labour force issues that could intensify as Ottawa looks to accelerate construction of major projects.
Karim Bardeesy, parliamentary secretary to the industry minister, said one of the issues is that Canadian employers have lagged on workforce skills development.
“There’s historic underinvestment in training by employers in Canada ... compared to other OECD countries,” he said during the panel talk.
Bardeesy said federal apprenticeship incentives are aimed at helping develop a more skilled workforce but that employers still have a role to play in on-the-job training.
He said employers are also grappling with gaps in workers’ interpersonal skills, which he called a lingering effect of the pandemic.
“The COVID hangover as it relates to soft skills is real,” Bardeesy said.
Meanwhile, he said universities and colleges need to move beyond small, incremental improvements in order to keep pace with rapid technology advancements and the changing circumstances of students.
“The innovations on the margins are not going to be enough,” Bardeesy said.
“It doesn’t mean rushing to the latest labour market or industrial fad. It just means attending to the fundamentals of very quickly changing technology and very quickly changing student needs.”
This report by The Canadian Press was first published Oct. 14, 2026
Brett Bundale, The Canadian Press
