Video shows suspect setting Toronto-area barbershop on fire
Video of a suspect lighting a Richmond Hill barbershop on fire earlier this week has been released by police.
Canada is suffering from a severe skills shortage in several key sectors, experts say, thanks to factors that include deficiencies in our education system as well as changing demographics.
After bouncing back from the pandemic-era restrictions, the Canadian economy saw record-low unemployment in 2022, as many industries saw severe labour shortages. But even with a potential recession on the horizon, experts say the skills shortage in some sectors could still persist.
Here are some of the skills that will be most in-demand in 2023:
Rosalie Wyonch, senior policy analyst at the C.D. Howe Institute, believes that digital and STEM (science, technology, engineering, and mathematics) skills are "probably the biggest category" of skills lacking in the Canadian workforce.
Back in August, the institute published a report calling on Canada to "increase its supply of people with digital skills." Part of that involves accepting more immigrants with these skills to address the shortage in the immediate term, something that's already in the works as the federal government plans to welcome 500,000 immigrants a year by 2025.
In recent months, tech companies have also been laying off thousands of workers, which has reduced the immediate labour shortage in this sector. But in the longer term, Wyonch believes all levels of government need to bolster digital and STEM education, not just at universities and colleges, but also all the way down to the elementary level, where math scores in particular have been on the decline across the country.
"We need to think about actually integrating general digital skills and STEM skills at even the elementary and secondary school levels so that, you know, these shortages won't grow over time and that we've got a good foundation of these skills across the entire population to then grow those at the post-secondary level," Wyonch said.
There is a huge demand in the skilled trades, as skilled trade workers are retiring faster than they're being replaced. According to the Ontario government, the average age of a skilled trade worker in Ontario is 47, but Skills Ontario CEO Ian Howcroft says average ages can be as high as in the late 50s in some industries.
"This is something that's been ongoing for years and years and decades. But I think the pandemic has exacerbated that by putting a whole lot of other barriers and challenges in place," Howcroft told CTVNews.ca over the phone on Friday.
In the residential construction industry alone, more than 128,400 workers across Canada are expected to retire by 2031, but only 102,100 workers are expected to enter the workforce according to a May 2022 report from BuildForce Canada -- a serious challenge as the impending higher levels of immigration are only going to increase the demand for new homes.
Part of the work that needs to be done, Howcroft said, is helping young people be more aware of what kinds of opportunities exist in the skilled trades, noting that there's long been a negative stigma associated with the skilled trades as "second-class career choices." Last July, a survey from 3M Canada found that three-quarters of Canadians would never pursue a skilled trade.
"In reality, these can be first-class career opportunities with high pay, with pensions, with benefit plans. And again, what we want to do is make sure young people have that opportunity to explore these," Howcroft said.
For years, Canada has seen a chronic shortage of health-care workers that's only been exacerbated by COVID-19, leading to long wait times for patients and even closed emergency rooms at times.
It's a problem that can't simply be solved with more immigration, as many internationally-trained health-care workers struggle to navigate through the bureaucratic process of obtaining a Canadian licence to practice in their field. Wyonch says she understands why Canada's licensing standards need to be high, but suggests foreign-trained health-care workers could get started in lower-level roles or assistive roles to ease the burden.
"There's not really a stepping stone or a way for people to help with a shortage in the health-care system by potentially doing those lower-level or assistive tasks that don't necessarily require a license, but because of legal or policy technicalities they currently do," she said. "So I think that government can really look at easing the transition to the labour market for immigrants that we're bringing in."
Spaces at medical and nursing schools also need to grow as Canada's population continues to increase and age, Wyonch said, while noting that the health-care system also needs to work on worker retention.
"You know, it's sort of like running on a treadmill that's constantly increasing in speed. If people are burning out faster and faster, we can't train our way out of that problem," she said.
Staffing shortages have pushed more health-care workers to take on longer hours, increasing burnout and stress. This has caused some to leave their profession altogether, worsening the shortages and creating a feedback loop. Data from Statistics Canada has found that one in four nurses plan to quit in the next three years.
"Obviously, we need to increase enrollment to ensure that there's enough people coming into the pipeline, but for the people that are already trained and experienced, I think we could do more to prevent losing them," Wyonch said.
Video of a suspect lighting a Richmond Hill barbershop on fire earlier this week has been released by police.
A New Brunswick woman suffering from sarcoidosis, a disease that limits your lung capacity, is in need of a double lung transplant.
The adorable trio of child actors from the 1993 classic comedy 'Mrs. Doubtfire,' which starred the late and great Robin Williams, are all grown up and looking back on their seminal time together.
York Regional Police say they are continuing to search for a suspect in an auto theft investigation who was captured on video running over a police officer in Toronto last month.
It’s the first flight of Boeing’s Starliner capsule with a crew on board, a pair of NASA pilots who will check out the spacecraft during the test drive and a weeklong stay at the space station.
A source close to singer Britney Spears tells CNN that the pop star is 'home and safe' after she had a 'major fight' with her boyfriend on Wednesday night at the Chateau Marmont in West Hollywood.
Pius Suter scored with 1:39 left and the Vancouver Canucks advanced to the second round of the NHL playoffs with a 1-0 victory over the Nashville Predators on Friday night in Game 6.
A Chinese truck driver was praised in local media Saturday for parking his vehicle across a highway and preventing more cars from tumbling down a slope after a section of the road in the country's mountainous south collapsed and killed at least 48 people.
TD Bank Group could be hit with more severe penalties than previously expected, says a banking analyst after a report that the investigation it faces in the U.S. is tied to laundering illicit fentanyl profits.
Alberta Ballet's double-bill production of 'Der Wolf' and 'The Rite of Spring' marks not only its final show of the season, but the last production for twin sisters Alexandra and Jennifer Gibson.
A British Columbia mayor has been censured by city council – stripping him of his travel and lobbying budgets and removing him from city committees – for allegedly distributing a book that questions the history of Indigenous residential schools in Canada.
Three men in Quebec from the same family have fathered more than 600 children.
A group of SaskPower workers recently received special recognition at the legislature – for their efforts in repairing one of Saskatchewan's largest power plants after it was knocked offline for months following a serious flood last summer.
A police officer on Montreal's South Shore anonymously donated a kidney that wound up drastically changing the life of a schoolteacher living on dialysis.
Since 1932, Montreal's Henri Henri has been filled to the brim with every possible kind of hat, from newsboy caps to feathered fedoras.
Police in Oak Bay, B.C., had to close a stretch of road Sunday to help an elephant seal named Emerson get safely back into the water.
Out of more than 9,000 entries from over 2,000 breweries in 50 countries, a handful of B.C. brews landed on the podium at the World Beer Cup this week.
Raneem, 10, lives with a neurological condition and liver disease and needs Cholbam, a medication, for a longer and healthier life.