There is supposed to be a shortage of trades people in BC. Went out to BC in january, 2 job offers, both employers knew we needed PNP nomination, or even a temp work permit, shortly afterwards both pulled out. Been making several contacts a week, despite this so called 'demand/shortage of tradies not a hoot.

Should I dumb my resume down, I have 20 years of experience as a supervisor, I am aware I will probably need to go down a peg or two, should I tailor the resume more to carpenter and delete a bit of the managerial side, my thinking is maybe I am too experienced and, catch 22, they are not going to give someone from OS a supervisor job straight up, but would possibly give a carpenters job.

Has the amount of construction workers laid off in the USA affected the lack of trades in Canada?, ie are they moving up there as obviously they have more local experience than someone from OS.

After 3 months of this I am beginning to seriously doubt there is any great demand for experienced, qualified chippies or do employers just not want to deal with immigration paperwork. And now the rules look set to change.

Also if anyone knows of someone who might be employing carpenters now, please send a private message, would probably also consider alberta.

I suspect that has something to do with it. I think there would be merit in de-emphasizing your managerial / supervisory experience.

No, I don't think that has much to do with it -- at least not directly. Skilled tradespeople from the USA can't just cross the border and work in Canada. NAFTA (the North American Free Trade Agreement) does allow some Americans to get work permits in Canada. However, the categories to which NAFTA permits apply are intra-company transferees and various professionals.

A few members of this forum have had positive experiences with Atkins West (an agency) in Calgary. I've just looked at their list of current jobs in Calgary, and there are a few jobs for carpenters -- more than the same page lists for BC.

If you're an immigrant in the skilled trades (and in several other occupations too), you have to be prepared to accept a crap job at first. You may be lucky and get a decent job right from the start, but don't take it for granted. Even here in Calgary, where the labour shortage is so accute you'd think they'd accept anyone who had a pulse, they still prefer to hire Canadian residents (because there's less bureaucratic hassle involved in hiring them).

When you've been working here for a couple of years, when you've got(ten) to know more people and made more contacts, when you've had a chance to figure out how the local system works, you can work your way up to a better job, start your own business or whatever.
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Thanks for your reply Judy, as always informative and helpful.

Going to do another resume, with more focus on hammer and nails side of things.

It seems a long road sometimes, and at times think we must be crazy, my skills/experience mean I have never been out of work, yet we still want to get into canada.

I think there may be something in this, especially in smaller firms. Even in the woodworking business, where there is a shortage of skilled cabinetmakers/joiners, some employers are reluctant to get involved with the hassle of getting an LMO or sponsering someone for PNP. They need people out on site on Monday.

These are typically owner operated family businesses who do not have professional administrative support. A lot of the contractors and sub contractors in the construction industry fall into this category.

Don't give up. The first thing I would do is call back the companies who were interested in you, and ask them if they can give you the name of other firms that are hiring qualified people.

Just spent ages doing a revised resume, or should that be downgraded resume and in process of sending it off to about 40 places to see if we get any reaction.

Special thanks to those who sent PM's, not going to give up, determined as hell now, seems crazy if there is a skills shortage that people with so much experience cant get a look in.

Hi Stevebarry,

As Judy mentioned, Atkins West in Calgary are a really good recruitment agency. My OH is a heating/plumbing engineer and we went out in Feb for a reccee trip and we met with the agency who had set up several interviews for OH for that week. They came with us to each interview so we didn't get lost and also to check out the company too. We haven't had to pay them any money as the employer pay them, not you. They will sort out our TWP which is for one year then will apply for PWP after that.
They stay in contact all the time and there was no pressure of accepting any of the job offers.
Although OH has been plumbing for 17 years, his CORGI qualifications don't mean anything in Canada and we had tp proof that he had 9,500 hours work experience in England and we also had to get letters from previous employers to proof that he had worked for them...easier said than done!
They are in desperate need for construction workers so don't give up. We nearly did when we were applying for jobs online but never had a reply from anyone.
Check out Calagry, we loved it and are hopefully moving out at the end of September.
Hope this info helps a little and good luck.