Shortage of trained engineers looms on horizon

By Don Ingram, P.Eng., President, Consulting Engineers of Ontario

The consulting industry is concerned that there is a manpower crisis looming over the horizon. To staff our companies and to compete in world markets, we require a continuing supply of qualified, experienced, innovative technical specialists. We believe that the demand for technical staff, both engineers and technicians, is already starting to exceed the supply and there are certainly indications that the situation will worsen.

Today, many of our client groups are expressing similar concerns. For very solid economic reasons, they have outsourced much of their engineering work to our industry. For example, last year consulting engineering firms did more than 85% of the design and contract administration work for Ministry of Transportation Ontario. MTO is currently experiencing the same hiring difficulties as us, but they are also concerned about the ability of our industry to meet their future requirements.

In the early 1990s, there was a sudden decline in construction spending in Ontario, triggered by an economic recession, which severely impacted the consulting economy. By 1993, industry revenues dropped to one-third of the 1989 level, equivalent to the industry income of ten years earlier. In response, consulting engineering firms basically tried to survive; some didn’t. Many reduced staff, reduced work weeks, chased work in other countries, merged, and regrettably, stopped hiring new grads.

Price competition flourished as clients took advantage of the excess supply to drive fees down. Consulting engineers were equally guilty, bidding to survive so engineering services became a commodity. The firms that survived became lean and mean. There is still a reluctance in many firms to change that lean and mean approach. Many firms are reluctant to hire and train new graduates. Many qualified people left the industry. A little later, in the mid 1990s, they also moved out of our clients’ businesses, as outsourcing and downsizing eliminated those positions.

It is not surprising that engineering salaries in the consulting sector declined relative to other sectors. A demographic void was created in our industry; experienced engineers and technologists with 5 – 10 years experience are in short supply as a result of non-hiring in the 90s.

We are, and we must be committed to a major program of infrastructure renewal and growth. It is essential to support economic growth and competitiveness, protect our environment, preserve our public health standards, and to maintain our quality of life.

I now quote from a recent editorial in Environmental Science & Engineering magazine on the role of civil engineers in the development of our society:

“Recent events in Walkerton’s drinking water supplies were described as unprecedented. Because of impure drinking water supplies, the people of Walkerton suffered deaths, widespread sickness and severe economic dislocation and losses, but looking back in history, this tragedy was not unprecedented:

• In 1854, a cholera epidemic in Hamilton, Ontario killed 552 of the city’s 14,000 inhabitants. In response, the city commissioned a waterworks and pumping station to provide water from Lake Ontario, a much purer source.
• In 1911, typhoid fever struck the city of Ottawa; in a little over two months, 987 cases were reported and 83 people died from this disease. In July 1912, Ottawa was stricken with a second and even worse typhoid epidemic; 1,878 people contracted the disease and 91 died from it.”

Many people would assert that the contributions of the engineering profession to public health in Ontario, surpass even those of the medical profession.

We are still very much in the preliminary stages, but we hope to work together to develop solutions in Ontario: to create broad awareness of the exciting, challenging opportunities in civil engineering and technology; to increase student enrolment in these programs; and to build an image that matches the tremendous accomplishments of our industry.