September 18, 2006

Professional Development

Industry faces looming shortage of concrete finishers

PETER KENTER

correspondent

Concrete finishers wanted — anywhere. Like many construction trades, concrete finishers are in short supply in today’s hot construction market. But current shortages may be the harbinger of a worse scenario.

“In the short run, we’re making up the lack of people with machines,” says Frank Guida, president of Tri-Con Concrete Finishing Limited and Vice-President of The Concrete Floor Contractors Association of Ontario.

“We’re using mechanical hardener spreaders for industrial floors, laser-guided and power screeds and bigger power floats and trowels. Machines like these are helping to ease some of the demand, but we still need the human factor, particularly in residential projects where the machines are too large to fit.”

New concrete materials often have little overall bearing on the amount of labour required to work with them. High Performance Concrete, for example, may have a longer life-span — reducing future repair work — but requires more intensive labour to pour and finish correctly.

Guida says entry level labour is still easy to find, but experienced concrete finishers are scarce. The job itself is also becoming more complex, with new concrete formulations and add mixtures.

“People have to adapt and work with these,” says Guida. “We try to find relatively well-experienced people and bring them up to speed on the new skills and technology, then have them teach others those skills.”

Although requirements vary by province, apprenticeship training programs for concrete finishers in Canada usually last for three 12-month periods, including at least 3,600 hours of on-the-job training, two four-week blocks of technical training, and a certificate examination.

The Construction Sector Council notes that concrete finishers currently average around 37 years of age, meaning that labour crunches resulting from looming retirement are still years away. However, restoration concrete workers are, on average, much closer to retirement age, says Guy Savasta, president of Delso Restoration Ltd. and president of the Building and Concrete Restoration Association of Ontario.

“Well-trained workers in the concrete restoration industry are now averaging 45 to 50 years old,” says Savasta.

“They’ll be leaving the work force in 10 to 15 years. The immigrants who came to Canada 30 and 40 years ago to fill these positions are reluctant to push their kids into the same back-breaking positions they’ve held for years. The current cross-section of immigrants coming to Canada shows an influx of better-educated people looking for white collar positions. Our industry was saved by a recent flow of immigration from Eastern Bloc countries from the former USSR — Russia, Ukraine and Poland, for example.”

Historical and heritage concrete restoration workers who ply a more specialized trade are in even shorter supply. In addition to the skills required of general restoration concrete finishers, workers in this field are required to not only repair and restore historic structures, but to retain the integrity and aesthetic appearance of the originals.

“The majority of the people who do heritage restoration work came from Britain and we haven’t seen a flow of skilled people like that into this country since,” says Savasta.

“Our association has grown very concerned as to where we’re headed in the next 10 to 15 years, so we’ve participated with George Brown College’s Centre for Advanced Building Technologies, setting up $40,000 worth of bursaries for young people to enter those programs. Hopefully, some of them will wind up in our industry.”

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