Thousands of trade workers in N.L. are retiring, and government is trying to recruit the next gen

Tradespeople like Jody Warren know his ilk are needed to keep Newfoundland and Labrador running.

"If we don't have enough people in the trades, we're not going to be able to build this country's future," Warren said. 

Warren, a production manager at Steele Honda in St. John's, was on hand Wednesday as the provincial government announced a $300,000 campaign to bolster the future of the trades in Newfoundland and Labrador.

The province estimates that over 6,000 construction and trade workers will retire in the next 10 years, and the investment is meant to encourage the next generation to look at the trades as a viable career path.

"The work that has to be done doesn't care about your country of origin, your religion or colour, your skin or how you identify. That's not important," Warren said. "What's important is we need to build this country and keep it running."

The $300,000 investment is a small one, says Immigration, Population, and Growth Minister Sarah Stoodley, noting the money will go toward supporting apprenticeships.

"We need them to start now so that they can be up and running in five, 10, 15 years," Stoodley said.

Employers who hire skilled apprentices will have 75 per cent of their wages covered by the provincial government — and youth apprenticeship programs are offered for high school students.

Stoodley said the province needs people to help develop its infrastructure plans, such as the schools in Paradise, Portugal Cove-St. Philip's, and the replacement of St. Clare's Hospital. 

"We have a very aggressive infrastructure plan for the province ... we need skilled tradespeople to do that work," she said. 

Taylor Whiffen, a Grade 12 student at St. Kevin's High School, is a welding apprentice. Through the province's Youth Apprenticeship Summer Program, Whiffen got an early start to her career in the trades. 

"In the apprenticeship program, it was excellent. I was getting treated like I was not in high school, and I was getting treated like I was an actual apprentice coming out of college, and I would not expect anything else," she said.

Whiffen will complete her trade in the fall after she graduates high school. Her favourite part of the job is plasma cutting. 

"I did a lot of that last summer, and it was very fun," Whiffen said. "Don't let anyone tell you that you can't when you're in the workshop."

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