The construction industry may be booming in New Brunswick amid COVID-19, but some contractors and renovators are having to turn down work due to a lack of trades workers.

Jonathan Denton, the owner of Little John’s Renovations in Moncton, said he has had to turn away 20 per cent of business because he cannot find enough skilled trades workers to take on all of his job requests.

“We work our whole lives to be at this point and now we have got to say no,” Denton said.

Skills Canada New Brunswick’s executive director, Courtney Donovan, said contractors are having to turn down work and the trades worker shortage stretches across the construction industry, including bricklayers and roofers.

“Just here in Moncton alone, there are going to be 7,000 jobs in the next three years and only about 1,200 of them require a degree,” she said, adding that of the remainder, 4,000 will likely be in the trades.

Donovan said that 100,000 trades jobs ranging from construction trades to those in the culinary industry will be needed in New Brunswick over the next decade. But given the current labour shortage, there is not likely to be enough trained workers to fill those positions.

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