VANCOUVER — Northern British Columbia is attracting major investment in clean energy, critical minerals and resource infrastructure. A new Pembina Institute report finds workforce planning is not keeping pace, raising concerns that local workers could miss out on new jobs and limiting how much local communities benefit from this growth.
The report, Northern Talent, Clean Future finds northern B.C. has many of the building blocks needed to succeed, including post-secondary institutions, Indigenous-led training initiatives and employer partnerships. However, stronger government leadership and coordination are needed to better match training with the jobs employers are trying to fill.
“Northern B.C. is seeing major investment, but the systems that prepare and connect workers to those opportunities are not keeping up,” said Megan Gordon, manager of the sustainable workforce program at Pembina Institute and co-author of the report. “If that doesn’t change, we risk a situation where jobs and investments are here, but local workers miss out on new opportunities while employers continue to look elsewhere.”
Northern communities face overlapping barriers to workforce participation, including fewer training institutions, long travel distances to education and training programs, shortages of housing for students, gaps in transportation and internet access and systemic barriers that amplify the impact of these challenges on Indigenous learners and workers.
At the same time as northern B.C. is experiencing significant investment through major project and clean energy investment, traditional industries in the region, such as forestry and manufacturing, continue to lose jobs. These shifts vary across the region, reinforcing the need for locally tailored workforce planning. Greater coordination between governments, employers and training providers can help local workers move into new opportunities, strengthen regional labour markets and reduce reliance on workers from outside the region.
While major projects create important employment opportunities, many of the jobs are temporary and concentrated during construction. Focusing only on local hiring for individual projects is not enough to build long-term benefits for northern communities. The report highlights the need to invest in a broader range of emerging sectors, so communities can develop stable, year-round employment beyond any single project. Without strong local training capacity and workforce planning, communities remain vulnerable to boom-and-bust employment cycles. The report argues that better coordination can help ensure today’s investments create lasting employment opportunities and stronger regional economies.
“Northern B.C. already has many of the foundations for success,” said Gordon. “But they are not working together as a system. The next step is to stop treating workforce planning as a separate project and start treating it as something that connects regions and industries so local workers and communities can fully participate in the opportunities being created.”
To better connect local workers with emerging opportunities, the report recommends:
- Increase targeted funding for northern post-secondary institutions and training providers
- Expand flexible, community-based and mobile training programs
- Increase work-integrated learning opportunities for secondary students
- Strengthen collaboration between governments, Indigenous communities, employers, unions and training providers
- Integrate regional workforce planning into economic and climate strategies
- Support economic diversification alongside major projects to build long-term resilience
The report concludes that workforce planning should be treated as core infrastructure for the clean economy transition. With stronger coordination among governments, Indigenous communities, employers and educators, northern B.C. can build a skilled local workforce that supports regional prosperity, strengthens economic resilience and helps ensure communities share in the benefits of new investment.
Quick facts
- Northern B.C. covers about 70% of the province’s landmass but is home to only about 7% of its population.
- The region spans four distinct economic regions: the North Coast, Nechako, Northeast and Cariboo
- Northern B.C. hosts 20 provincial major projects and 6 proposed federal major projects, including clean energy and critical minerals developments.
- These provincial projects could create over 20,000 construction jobs and support over 6,000 ongoing jobs.
- Indigenous Peoples make up a significant share of the population, including 38% on the North Coast and between 16% and 20% in other northern regions.
- Major Indigenous-owned clean energy projects are underway across the region, including Canada’s largest off-grid solar projects and what could become Canada’s first geothermal power plant.
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Visit the Pembina Institute’s website to download a copy of Northern Talent, Clean Future: Workforce development for the clean energy economy in northern B.C.
Contact
Lejla Latifovic
Senior Communications Lead, Pembina Institute
819-639-4185
Background
Report: Sustainable Jobs in B.C.
