Bruce Power is teaming up with the Ontario Building Trades Council for a strategy to build the future of their workforce for the Bruce C Nuclear Project.
In a media release, Bruce Power says that a collaboration with the Building Trades Council will help ensure that a highly qualified skilled trades workforce will both benefit the economy today, but will give a reliable future to that workforce.
The company says that a unified approach through the Bruce C Skilled Trades Workforce Readiness Planning Strategy is a long-term partnership focused on strengthening apprenticeship, training, and labour planning to support project delivery.
The strategy includes three core elements:
· Joint governance through a steering committee co-chaired by Bruce Power and the Provincial Building and Construction Trades Council of Ontario, supported by project-level subcommittees that bring together contractors, training delivery partners, Indigenous partners, municipalities, and provincial ministries;
· A skilled trades demand/supply forecasting tool to provide shared visibility into workforce needs by trade, anticipate pressures early, and support timely decisions;
· A skilled trades availability mitigation plan that strengthens training capacity, addresses labour gaps, and supports worker mobility and community engagement.
Bruce Power says that over the next year, the partners will finalize governance, develop a forecasting dashboard, and propose mitigation measures, which include apprenticeship and expansion, workforce housing and mobility supports, and continuous monitoring with rapid-response triggers to address emerging shortages.
The Provincial Building and Construction Trades Council of Ontario represents 150,000 skilled trades workers throughout the province belonging to 15 affiliated construction craft unions.
The Bruce C expansion project is the first large-scale build that’s taken place at the Bruce Power site since 1993.