Alberta’s Industrial Heartland to draw in thousands of construction workers – Construct Connect
October 2, 2024
Thousands of construction workers will be needed in Alberta’s Industrial Heartland area over the next five years as it heads into the Dow building boom, with close to $13.1 billion in new construction.
The Building Trades of Alberta (BTA) is putting a strategy into place to meet surging the labour demands.
But the Edmonton Construction Association said the Dow boom is only part of the picture.
“In the Greater Edmonton area there are 191 projects totalling approximately $96 billion in value – $63 billion are under construction and another $30 billion are proposed. Dow is $9 billion of that,” said association president David Johnson.
BTA executive director Terry Parker said his focus will be on ensuring jobs for Albertans, followed by Canadians, and then U.S. workers where the BTA has already had talks with local union building councils.
“If things are booming south of the border, we have connections to other parts of the world,” he said, putting the trade union reach to Europe, Australia and India.
