By Kerry Freek, Water Canada Magazine
March 24, 2010

As we’ve learned from highly-publicized events in Walkerton, North Battleford and Kashechewan, there are major consequences when water and wastewater treatment services don’t meet the required standards. The consequences are equally dire if there aren’t enough qualified workers to operate these services.

The available labour pool is already spread thin, and without actively planning for labour succession, many municipalities will suffer a decline in critical services, even as they invest in building new facilities and upgrading existing ones with funding from programs such as the federal Infrastructure Stimulus Fund. These investments, plus impending changes in regulations as part of the upcoming national wastewater strategy, will result in more complex facilities that will require new and different expertise. It’s time to step back and assess the current and future labour market.

Enter ECO Canada’s recent Municipal Water and Waste Management Labour Market Study. The report, to be released this March, provides an in-depth look at the issues facing municipalities, identifying current demographics of practitioners, characteristics of supply and demand of practitioners within the industry, critical human resource issues, and trends and projections for practitioners within the industry.
 

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