SASKATCHEWAN POLYTECHNIC
Nuclear power is testing more than our energy future

Canada's nuclear debate typically centres on technology, cost and infrastructure. Yet today's nuclear renaissance is testing something more fundamental: whether we can build the people, skills and pathways needed to match our ambitions. If workforce capacity does not grow alongside generating capacity, even the strongest technology and infrastructure plans will fall short.

A reactor may be the most visible part of a nuclear project, but it represents the work of thousands of skilled people across dozens of disciplines. In many ways, the workforce is the project.

As Canada's nuclear sector enters a period of renewed growth, it is revealing a challenge that extends far beyond the industry itself. This is not simply a nuclear workforce challenge. It is a Canadian workforce challenge that happens to be playing out through nuclear.

A modern nuclear project relies on a remarkably diverse workforce. Recent research on Canada's nuclear buildout indicates that some of the most significant future workforce gaps are expected not in highly specialized nuclear occupations but in skilled trades and engineering technology fields including industrial electricians, ironworkers, steamfitters, pipefitters and mechanical engineers.

That finding should reshape how we think about nuclear workforce development.

From my perspective in post-secondary education, the challenge is not simply producing more nuclear engineers. It is to ensure Canada has sufficient skilled and adaptable talent across a wide range of occupations, while creating pathways for people to enter new careers, move between industries and continue learning throughout their working lives.

Many of the workers required to support nuclear growth are also essential to the broader energy economy. That overlap makes mobility - not permanent attachment to a single sector - a defining feature of the workforce challenge.

Consider the career of a welder. Over time, that individual may work in mining, renewable energy, manufacturing, utilities and eventually nuclear power. The core competencies remain valuable, even as technologies, processes and regulatory requirements evolve. The same principle applies to instrumentation technologists, cybersecurity specialists and environmental professionals.

Tomorrow's energy workers are unlikely to spend their entire careers in a single industry.

This is particularly true here in Western Canada. Research examining workforce requirements for future SMR deployment in Alberta and Saskatchewan found that many of the necessary skills already exist in sectors such as mining, oil and gas, utilities and heavy industry.

Our challenge is helping people build on the skills they already have and apply them in new environments. This requires creating more opportunities to learn on the job, gain experience in industry and add new skills throughout a career. Workers need pathways that enable continued progress as industries evolve.

Another challenge is simply mathematical: there aren't enough people entering the skilled trade and technology workforce to replace those retiring out of it and the additional need created by next-generation nuclear projects and federal initiatives around housing, defence and infrastructure.

Retirements in the skilled trades are accelerating. Projections cited in workforce research suggest that between 20 and 31 per cent of the current workforce could reach retirement age within a relatively short period. At the same time, major projects that will require hundreds or even thousands of tradespeople are approaching construction or already breaking ground. Yet workforce planning across sectors still appears to assume that labour can be drawn from somewhere else.

Canada cannot solve future labour shortages by relying solely on existing recruitment pipelines. Expanding workforce participation is not only a matter of equity. It is a matter of economic necessity.

This requires looking beyond traditional talent pools and creating pathways into skilled careers for groups that have historically been underrepresented in parts of the energy sector.

This is particularly relevant in Saskatchewan, where the future of nuclear energy is closely connected to a long-established uranium sector and to opportunities for Indigenous participation and leadership. The province's uranium industry already offers a strong example of what meaningful participation can look like. In 2024, more than 40 per cent of mine-site employees were residents of northern Saskatchewan, and Indigenous-owned businesses received hundreds of millions of dollars in procurement opportunities.

These outcomes were built through long-term partnerships, investments in training, local employment pathways and a sustained commitment to shared prosperity.

As Saskatchewan considers its nuclear future, those lessons matter more than ever. They also point to practical strategies for building the workforce needed to support future nuclear development.

Community-based training can create opportunities closer to home. Local employment pathways can help learners move into skilled careers without leaving their communities. Long-term career development can support advancement into leadership positions. Economic participation can extend beyond employment to include procurement, entrepreneurship and business ownership.

Most importantly, partnership must move beyond consultation. People are more likely to support a future when they can see their place in it.

Expanding participation among Indigenous peoples is not simply about ensuring communities benefit from development. It is also part of how Canada addresses one of its most significant workforce constraints. Building a larger and more resilient workforce starts with broadening access to opportunity. When we expand participation, we expand capacity.

Across Canada, employers in every sector are confronting the same reality: technology is advancing faster, jobs are evolving faster and workers need opportunities to keep learning throughout their careers.

The nuclear sector simply makes that reality impossible to ignore.

Nuclear power may be the clearest mirror of Canada's workforce future. The questions confronting nuclear today, where talent will come from, how workers will continue learning and how more people can participate in opportunity, are increasingly the questions facing industries across the economy.

Ultimately, nuclear development is not only testing our ability to build reactors. It is revealing whether Canada can build the workforce its future demands.