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Winnipeg Free Press - PRINT EDITION

Hunt for trades workers global

Firms recruit in developing world

By: Murray McNeill

3/02/2010 1:00 AM | Comments: 0

MANITOBA'S construction industry is going farther afield in its search for skilled tradesmen and women.Although Europe has traditionally been one of the favourite hunting grounds for industry recruiters, in the last three or four years some firms also have been recruiting heavy equipment mechanics from India and Central and South America, and concrete workers from Myanmar (also known as Burma) and Portugal, an industry official said Tuesday.

"And you're going to start seeing... them recruiting from the Middle East and Africa," said Stan Kruse, director of the Manitoba Heavy Construction Safety Program.

Kruse said employers are turning to non-traditional markets because it's getting harder to recruit workers from Europe because the economies and standards of living are improving there and workers are less willing to leave.

But that's not the case in many developing countries, where they often jump at the chance to move to Canada, he said.

Although he didn't have industry-wide numbers, Kruse estimated the heavy construction industry has recruited about a half a dozen workers from India over the last year, and about a dozen from Central and South America over the last three or four years.

About three years ago, Lafarge Canada Inc. hired eight refugees from Myanmar to work at its concrete-products manufacturing plant in Winnipeg. And while half of them later left for jobs elsewhere, a company official said the experience has been a positive one.

"The ones we have are hard-working guys," regional vice-president Andy Dutfield said in an interview. "They're here to do a good job and can be relied upon to show up each day and put in a good day's work."

He said some are working as labourers, some as equipment operators, and one is a junior supervisor with the company.

While some construction companies are going farther afield for workers, that doesn't mean they've turned their back on the domestic market. Kruse said the industry is still recruiting aboriginal workers and encouraging high school students to consider a career in construction.

And the executive vice-president of the Winnipeg Construction Association said the last eight or nine months have seen a "fairly significant number" of trades workers returning to Manitoba from Alberta because there's plenty of work here and the cost of living is much lower.

"As long as there's work here, I think most of them will stay," Ron Hambley said.

Hambley and Kruse were commenting on the opening day of the 21st annual Manitoba Construction Conference, which got underway Tuesday at the Winnipeg Convention Centre. The two-day event is organized by the Manitoba Heavy Construction Safety Program and the Construction Safety Association of Manitoba, and is North America's largest annual conference on construction safety, health and environment.

murray.mcneill@freepress.mb.ca

Republished from the Winnipeg Free Press print edition February 3, 2010 B6

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