Electricity demand is rising again in both countries after a long flat stretch. Data centres, new manufacturing, electrification and industrial expansion are all adding load. The equipment to serve that load takes years to plan, approve and build. The people to design, install and run it have to be in place before that.
If you run a utility, a contractor, an engineering group or an industrial plant that is adding load, the staffing question is not secondary. It sets the pace of the whole program.
Why the talent timeline is the tight one
A transformer or a substation has a long lead time, and everyone knows it. The labour behind it gets less attention, even though it runs on a similar clock.
Experienced power engineers, protection and controls specialists, line and substation technicians, and project managers who have delivered capital work are not a pool you can draw from in a quarter. Many are already employed and many are close to retirement. Hiring them takes months, and getting them productive takes longer.
When several programs start at once, they compete for the same people. Transmission work, generation, asset replacement, grid digitization and new customer connections all draw on a small group of skilled workers.
The roles that tend to bottleneck
These are the areas where we see employers struggle most when capital work ramps up:
- Operations and field roles: line workers, substation and relay technicians, commissioning staff, maintenance planners, and supervisors who can run crews safely.
- Engineering and project delivery: design and protection engineers, estimators, schedulers, construction and program managers.
- Data and AI: analysts and engineers who can work with asset records, sensor data and load forecasts.
- Manufacturing and supply: machinists, assemblers, quality and production leads at firms that make electrical equipment and enclosures.
- Finance and contract support: project controllers, cost analysts and contract administrators who keep large capital programs on budget.
None of these is a role to fill in a hurry. Waiting until the work is approved usually means starting late.
Forecast your people the way you forecast load
Planners already model where demand will appear and how fast. Apply the same discipline to headcount.
- List the programs and their start dates. Include the ones that are probable, not just the approved ones.
- Map each to the roles and quantities it needs, by quarter.
- Mark which roles are scarce in your region and which can be trained from within.
- Work back from the start date using a realistic hiring and ramp-up time, not a best case.
- Review it with operations, engineering, finance and HR in one room. Separate plans are how gaps go unnoticed.
The result will show where permanent hires are needed now, where contract help covers a peak, and where an apprenticeship or internal training path is worth starting this year.
Use contract talent for peaks, permanent hires for the core
Capital programs are lumpy. A commissioning push, a data migration or a six-month design surge does not justify a permanent headcount increase. Contract engineers, project coordinators, estimators and analysts can cover those peaks and leave you flexible if timing shifts.
The skills you need for the next 10 years of operation should be permanent. That includes the control room, protection and controls expertise, asset management and the supervisors who hold crews together. Contract help is a bridge there, not a substitute.
Be specific about AI and data hiring
Better forecasting, asset monitoring and analytics can help planners see constraints sooner. The hiring mistake is to bring in data talent with no defined problem to work on.
Start with the question: where are we least able to predict load, which assets fail without warning, which data sits unused? Then hire for that. A strong data engineer who understands the quality of your asset records is worth more than a team of generalists with no access to clean inputs.
Do not forget the people who are already there
Retention counts as much as recruiting. Experienced technicians and engineers are in demand everywhere, and competitors will approach them. Check pay against the market, give people a clear path into senior and supervisory work, and pair retirees-in-waiting with newer staff early enough to pass on what they know.
One example from outside the sector: a food manufacturer in the GTA we worked with hired over 20 people in 18 months across production, skilled trades and office roles. It worked because the company planned the mix in advance and did not treat each opening as a separate event. The same approach applies to any employer facing a long build cycle.
What to do next
Take the three biggest programs on your 2027 plan and write down the roles each needs, by quarter, and when each person must be on site. Mark the roles you cannot fill from inside. That list is your hiring plan, and it is better to have it now than after the work is approved.
A Traverse recruiter can help you sort which of those roles should be permanent, which should be contract, and where the market is tightest in your region.
