Natural Resources Committee on June 5th, 2012

Francis Bradley

Yes, absolutely. In fact, we've been addressing human resource challenges for the electricity industry for a number of years through the association. Jointly with Human Resources Development Canada, we launched a HR sector council a number of years ago. We've been attempting to address a significant shortage of both skilled and unskilled labour over the coming decade. As with a lot of other sectors, we're seeing significant numbers of people in our sector moving towards retirement, and so we're actively seeking ways to ensure that we have the human resources that we're going to need. This is not an issue specific to the north; it's an issue that we're seeing right across the industry. But clearly, it is further exacerbated not just the north but in any remote community. The human resource challenges are only increasing; they're not getting any easier.

Francis Bradley

That's an excellent question.

We see parallels, not just in terms of people but also in terms of equipment and supplies. Any industry that uses the same sorts of skill sets that we have would also include, for example, any other resource development, any other energy development, and so on. So we're looking at the same kinds of pools, on the one hand.

On the other hand, as the industry increasingly moves toward more automation, we're facing a future that will be characterized by smart grids and electric vehicles, and so on. There's a part of the business that's also increasingly becoming high-tech. Not only are we competing, for example, with other construction projects on our hard assets, but we're also competing with Google and Intel for some of the smartest people we're going to need to be able to develop that smart grid for the future.

The challenges are really across the board. It isn't just the people who are pouring the cement but it's the people who are going to be developing the apps that are going to really manage our energy use in the future.

Francis Bradley

Oh, yes, absolutely. As I say, every industry does, to one degree or another, both in terms of people and equipment. There's only so much rebar in the country at any given time. There's only so much cement that can be poured in any given time. It is an issue of both the people who are going to be doing some of that work and the equipment that is required.

But, yes, clearly, these are not the only sectors that are chasing after the same sort of people, but they're certainly among them. But it really would be every sector in the economy, right down to IT and high-tech.

Francis Bradley

To a certain extent, in some of these sectors you would see salaries being pushed up, but it's just natural supply and demand. By the same token, if you look back to 1998 and 1999, if you were an IT specialist and you knew something about the Y2K phenomenon and were able to work in that domain, you were able to demand a pretty significant premium for a short period of time just because it was a matter of supply and demand. If that was your particular skill set on January 2, 2000, that skill set was no longer much in demand.

But, yes, that's the natural ebb and flow of demand, so that, as there are increasing demands in some of those specific areas, there's upward pressure on price.

By the way, it isn't just between different industries here in Canada. It's also more of a North American phenomenon as well. We'll train power line technicians here in Canada. We also have to compete, for example, with companies in Florida that are facing shortages.

Peter Mackey

We carried out a study near Iqaluit specifically, given that it's our best chance of displacing the largest amount of CO2 in fossil fuel use. We looked at 14 different sites around that area. We've identified, on a cost basis, the best location for us in terms of the infrastructure. We're looking at being 60 to 70 kilometres away.

We've since been in discussions with a mine that is looking at development near Iqaluit and we're looking at an alternative hydro site, in large part because the capital infrastructure is paid for over the life the mine if we have a power purchase agreement with the mine, even if the infrastructure is initially more costly to develop. So it varies.

Peter Mackey

We would build the hydro project to match the requirements of the mine plus the city. For Iqaluit we're looking at 30 megawatts.