{"id":264921,"date":"2017-03-16T10:30:15","date_gmt":"2017-03-16T14:30:15","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/policyoptions.irpp.org\/issues\/canadas-engineering-shortfall\/"},"modified":"2025-10-07T21:31:43","modified_gmt":"2025-10-08T01:31:43","slug":"canadas-engineering-shortfall","status":"publish","type":"issues","link":"https:\/\/policyoptions.irpp.org\/fr\/2017\/03\/canadas-engineering-shortfall\/","title":{"rendered":"Canada\u2019s engineering shortfall"},"content":{"rendered":"

Seniors now outnumber children<\/a> in Canada. That\u2019s a problem for engineering.<\/p>\n

Across the country, thousands of engineers with decades of experience are about to retire en masse<\/em>. Engineers, who we are celebrating this National Engineering Month<\/a>, design the bridges you drive over every day on your way to work. They invent new mobile devices that transform our daily lives. And they develop new technologies to improve cancer treatments, generate carbon-neutral power, and provide clean drinking water to remote communities both at home and abroad. Engineers are solving the world\u2019s most pressing problems, designing large-scale solutions to incredibly complex challenges.<\/p>\n

But we now face a crisis: Canada will be short 100,000 engineers<\/a> in the next decade as a result of retirements and growth, according to Engineers Canada, the national umbrella organization for the profession\u2019s regulatory bodies.<\/p>\n

To keep our economic engine running in the face of this imminent shortfall, Canadian industry needs the specialized knowledge and skills of a new kind of engineer \u2014 those with advanced degrees.<\/p>\n

We urgently need knowledgeable and innovative engineering leaders not only to maintain and improve our essential systems \u2014health care, infrastructure and energy production, for example \u2014 but also to become an engine of economic prosperity and to enhance our global competitiveness through accelerated research, development and entrepreneurship.<\/p>\n

In September 2015, Prime Minister Justin Trudeau sounded the alarm<\/a> about stagnating R&D in home-grown technologies and entrepreneurship. \u201cThe global economy is increasingly competitive,\u201d he said. \u201cNew technologies are disrupting old economic models and emerging\u00a0economies are taking an ever-growing share of the global marketplace. This poses challenges to Canada, but it also, of course, offers new opportunities.\u201d<\/p>\n

Canadian companies are global leaders in fields such as biotechnology, robotics, telecommunications and sustainable energy. These industries are driving our new innovation economy, and they all rely on highly educated engineers with advanced knowledge in their fields. Research from the Conference Board of Canada shows that hiring graduates with advanced degrees leads to better business outcomes<\/a>, arising from improved research and development programs. Yet we see many top graduate students recruited away to positions in Silicon Valley, Boston or Shanghai \u2014 markets that are eager to leverage the specialized education of graduate-level engineering degree holders.<\/p>\n

There\u2019s a huge opportunity here for Canadian industry. More than half of Canadian Business<\/em>\u2019s Best Jobs of 2016<\/a> demand engineering or advanced science degrees. Postgraduate-degree holders have an added edge: they have applied their engineering education to innovate within a specific field. By bringing leading-edge ideas and experience from the lab to the marketplace, Canada\u2019s most vital industries can stay ahead of the increasingly strong global competition.<\/p>\n

Canadian universities are world-renowned for their engineering programs: the best and brightest students from across this country and around the world have access to top-ranked undergraduate and graduate programs in every discipline. To capitalize on this critical mass of excellence, five leading schools have been working together since 2013 to attract the brightest minds from across Canada and around the world to our graduate engineering programs, and then to connect those alumni with industry. The Canadian Graduate Engineering Consortium<\/a> (CGEC) unites the universities of Alberta, British Columbia, McGill, Toronto and Waterloo.<\/p>\n

In 2015, Canadian engineering schools conferred more than 7,600 master\u2019s and PhD degrees \u2014 the holders of these degrees are creative, adaptive and accomplished engineers who are uniquely equipped to drive our knowledge-based economy forward. With their advanced skills and training, these graduates are ready to step into jobs vacated by retirees and prevent this impending engineering shortfall.<\/p>\n

Together, as representatives of the universities that make up the CGEC, we call upon Canadian industry leaders to capitalize on the exceptional training and experience of our engineering postgraduate-degree holders by hiring them and keeping them here<\/a>, so they can help drive Canada\u2019s economic engine forward. The most recent federal budget allocated billions<\/a> to spark innovation and support Canadian industries from genomics to renewable energy, but provincial and federal policymakers can further incentivize industry through tax policy that encourages the hiring of Canadian-trained graduate engineering students.<\/p>\n

There has never been a more important time to invest in tomorrow\u2019s engineering leaders. Canada\u2019s ability to compete globally depends on our willingness to harness the top-tier engineering talent that will power economic growth in the years to come.<\/p>\n

Photo:\u00a0Timothy Yue\/Shutterstock.com<\/span><\/p>\n

\n

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Seniors now outnumber children in Canada. That\u2019s a problem for engineering. Across the country, thousands of engineers with decades of experience are about to retire en masse. Engineers, who we are celebrating this National Engineering Month, design the bridges you drive over every day on your way to work. They invent new mobile devices that […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"featured_media":252851,"template":"","meta":{"_acf_changed":false,"content-type":"","ep_exclude_from_search":false,"apple_news_api_created_at":"2025-10-08T01:31:45Z","apple_news_api_id":"715849b4-757b-4556-aca7-a6694bac436f","apple_news_api_modified_at":"2025-10-08T01:31:45Z","apple_news_api_revision":"AAAAAAAAAAD\/\/\/\/\/\/\/\/\/\/w==","apple_news_api_share_url":"https:\/\/apple.news\/AcVhJtHV7RVasp6ZpS6xDbw","apple_news_cover_media_provider":"image","apple_news_coverimage":0,"apple_news_coverimage_caption":"","apple_news_cover_video_id":0,"apple_news_cover_video_url":"","apple_news_cover_embedwebvideo_url":"","apple_news_is_hidden":"","apple_news_is_paid":"","apple_news_is_preview":"","apple_news_is_sponsored":"","apple_news_maturity_rating":"","apple_news_metadata":"\"\"","apple_news_pullquote":"","apple_news_pullquote_position":"","apple_news_slug":"","apple_news_sections":[],"apple_news_suppress_video_url":false,"apple_news_use_image_component":false},"categories":[9362,9379,9372],"tags":[8377,8365],"article-status":[],"irpp-category":[4245,4209,4675,4266],"section":[],"irpp-tag":[7173],"class_list":["post-264921","issues","type-issues","status-publish","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-economie","category-education","category-recent-stories-fr","tag-skills-fr","tag-innovation","irpp-category-economie","irpp-category-education","irpp-category-innovation","irpp-category-travail","irpp-tag-competences"],"acf":[],"apple_news_notices":[],"yoast_head":"\nCanada\u2019s engineering shortfall<\/title>\n<meta name=\"robots\" content=\"index, follow, max-snippet:-1, max-image-preview:large, max-video-preview:-1\" \/>\n<link rel=\"canonical\" href=\"https:\/\/policyoptions.irpp.org\/fr\/2017\/03\/canadas-engineering-shortfall\/\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:locale\" content=\"fr_FR\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:type\" content=\"article\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:title\" content=\"Canada\u2019s engineering shortfall\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:description\" content=\"Seniors now outnumber children in Canada. 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