{"id":54175,"date":"2025-05-07T10:00:00","date_gmt":"2025-05-07T13:00:00","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/thelaker.ca\/?p=54175"},"modified":"2025-05-07T10:00:00","modified_gmt":"2025-05-07T13:00:00","slug":"eac-report-says-energy-retrofits-will-create-thousands-of-skilled-trades-jobs-boost-n-s-economy","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/staging-z.thelaker.ca\/?p=54175","title":{"rendered":"EAC report says energy retrofits will create thousands of skilled trades jobs, boost N.S. economy"},"content":{"rendered":"\n

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NOVA SCOTIA:<\/strong> A new report from the Ecology Action Centre (EAC) shows that efforts to make buildings more energy efficient will create massive opportunities for N.S.\u2019s skilled workforce. <\/p>\n\n\n\n

Building Nova Scotia\u2019s Green Workforce: Addressing Labour Gaps for a Net-Zero Future<\/em><\/a> looks at which jobs will be created by efforts to reach greenhouse gas (GHG) emissions targets, and what can be done to reduce barriers for workers entering the trades.\u00a0<\/p>\n\n\n\n

\u201cIn the wake of a federal election that focused heavily on jobs and strengthening the Canadian economy, this report outlines a path to achieving both,\u201d says Chris Benjamin, senior energy coordinator with the EAC. <\/p>\n\n\n\n

\u201cIn Nova Scotia, we need energy efficiency upgrades to commercial buildings and more than 16,500 homes each year to meet our legislated climate targets. <\/p>\n\n\n\n

“For that to happen we need to train thousands more workers, which is a huge opportunity for our skilled trades sector.\u201d\u00a0<\/p>\n\n\n\n

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A 2019 report<\/a> also showed that transitioning to a net-zero economy \u2013 where we either emit no GHGs or offset all emissions \u2013 would create 15,000 jobs per year in N.S., offering a significant boost to our economy. <\/p>\n\n\n\n

\u201cBuilding retrofits are helping to lower pollution and emissions, but we have an aging workforce,\u201d says Benjamin. <\/p>\n\n\n\n

\u201cCarpentry, HVAC, electrical work and building finishing are going to be in growing demand, providing opportunities for good jobs right here at home.”\u00a0<\/p>\n\n\n\n

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According to Building Nova Scotia\u2019s Green Workforce<\/em>, in five years N.S. could see over 7,000 vacant carpenter positions and over 4,000 vacant electrician positions. At the same time, there will be a significant boost in HVAC sector jobs. <\/p>\n\n\n\n

\u201cTo meet this demand, we need to support more gender-diverse and BIPOC (Black, Indigenous and People of Colour) workers entering these professions,\u201d says Benjamin. <\/p>\n\n\n\n

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BIPOC and gender-diverse people are extremely underrepresented in skilled trades. <\/p>\n\n\n\n

Benjamin points to barriers like unwelcoming workplace culture and harassment, childcare demands and limited access for education as reasons why this is the case. <\/p>\n\n\n\n

He adds that in addition to removing these barriers, improvements should be made to training and education programs, which are slow to adapt to industry changes and can have long waitlists.\u00a0<\/p>\n\n\n\n

\u201cThe need for so many skilled workers can either be a crisis or an incredible opportunity,\u201d says Benjamin. <\/p>\n\n\n\n

\u201cIf we act now, we have this amazing chance to support a robust skilled workforce and meet the growing demand for building retrofits while supporting a strong Nova Scotia economy. <\/p>\n\n\n\n

“Government, the trades sector, post-secondary institutions and other energy efficiency experts must work together to address this need.\u201d\u00a0<\/p>\n\n\n\n

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[adrotate banner=”127″] [adrotate banner=”238″] NOVA SCOTIA: A new report from the Ecology Action Centre (EAC) shows that efforts to make buildings more energy efficient will create massive opportunities for N.S.\u2019s skilled workforce. Building Nova Scotia\u2019s Green Workforce: Addressing Labour Gaps for a Net-Zero Future looks at which jobs will be created by efforts to reach […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":54194,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[957],"tags":[4200,50,121,48,8308,5933],"class_list":["post-54175","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-news","tag-ecology-action-centre","tag-halifax","tag-hrm","tag-n-s","tag-n-s-economy","tag-skilled-trades"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/staging-z.thelaker.ca\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/54175","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/staging-z.thelaker.ca\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/staging-z.thelaker.ca\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/staging-z.thelaker.ca\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/staging-z.thelaker.ca\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcomments&post=54175"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/staging-z.thelaker.ca\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/54175\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/staging-z.thelaker.ca\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/media\/54194"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/staging-z.thelaker.ca\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fmedia&parent=54175"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/staging-z.thelaker.ca\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcategories&post=54175"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/staging-z.thelaker.ca\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Ftags&post=54175"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}