While the Nova Scotia boatbuilding industry seems to be riding out the COVID-19 wave, finding skilled labour continues to be a major issue.
In general, the demand seems to be still healthy for fishing boats, said Jan Fullerton, executive director of the Nova Scotia Boatbuilders Association (NSBA). “The biggest issue is the same as before the pandemic, the shortage of skilled labour.”
Fullerton said answers are varied from boatyards in the province on whether or not COVID-19 has impacted their orders.
“It depends on which shop you talk to,” she said. “The ones doing government contracts, the contracts are still in place. Most of the ones doing fishing boats seem to be doing okay as well, maybe not as busy as usual, while some are as busy as ever. I did talk to the odd boatyard that said they didn’t have any long-term prospects or even medium-term prospects, so there is room in their lineup.”
However, Fullerton said there are some yards that have had to abandon orders and not by choice. “They just couldn’t get enough workers to keep up.”
While the boatbuilding industry didn’t have to shut down in the spring as long as the yards followed public health guidelines, some voluntarily closed to regroup and figure out the logistics of dealing with COVID-19 restrictions, while others closed for precautionary reasons to protect staff, said Fullerton.
“They are all back to work now,” said Fullerton. “I wouldn’t say they are in survival mode, but most are dealing with what’s in front of them and don’t have a lot of time to look up. A lot of them are dealing with all the changes.”
Although COVID-19 has thrown a curveball at some of the skilled workforce training initiatives the NSBA had been working on, it has opened up opportunities on one front.
“We introduced some virtual workshops, a one-hour seminar with guest speakers and it’s actually been good,” said Fullerton.
“We’ve been able to get speakers that we normally wouldn’t be able to get. Things that would have been harder to do before are easier. We haven’t had a huge number of people attending so we’ve been recording the seminars so they are available for viewing later by members.”
Fullerton said the NSBA is also doing a program review this year of the boatbuilder apprenticeship program in conjunction with the Nova Scotia Apprenticeship Agency.
“We’ve also been working with the broader composites industry and general manufacturing developing a new training course modification… the question is how to deliver it and that depends on the public health guidelines that are in place so there’s still a few hurdles to cross there but we’re still going forward with training and workforce development initiatives but it’s just not as easy to do as it used to be.”
The NSBA also have some funding from the Nova Scotia Department of Labour and Advanced Education for “a project to work with youth and newcomers to Canada and to try to get their perspectives on the boatbuilding industry and how we might be able to make the industry more attractive to those two audiences,” said Fullerton.
“In particular to encourage youth and people immigrating to Canada to get them to consider working in the boatbuilding industry, especially if there is an immigrant who has boatbuilding experience,” adding the NSBA has reached out to the Immigrant Services Association of Nova Scotia to assist with the project.
According to a survey conducted in 2019 by the NSBA, industry reported $114 million in sales for 2018. The total number of skilled people employed full-time, year-round by boatbuilders, repairers, servicers and marine suppliers in Nova Scotia was 1,450 in 2018, including 970 boatbuilding jobs and 480 employed by marine suppliers.
