DiscoverEE Webinar: Canada’s Green Workforce

It’s estimated that Canada’s green building sector supports over 500,000 jobs and contributes about $81 billion in direct GDP nationwide. With decarbonization a growing priority, demand is rising not only for energy efficiency upgrades, but for renewable energy technology and electrification capacity needed to deliver energy-efficiency decarbonization projects at speed and at scale. As Canada continues to address growing housing pressures as well as rising climate risk, green building is more than just an environmental priority – it’s an economic one. 

New research shows that governments and industry can help meet this demand by pairing predictable policies and funding pipelines with workforce initiatives that help people enter, complete and advance in green building careers.  

Join Efficiency Canada’s Natasha Daniel, Laurna Strikwerda from the Canada Green Building Council and Alex Stephens from the Future Skills Centre to explore new workforce research and what it means for energy efficiency and the green building sector.  

Guest Speakers:

Alex Stephens

Director of Programs, Future Skills Centre

Since 2001, Alex has led research, knowledge mobilization and innovation programs on skills and labour market development, post-secondary education and training, and tripartite approaches to workforce development. He has worked both in Canada and internationally and highlights of his career include leading the Canadian Council on Learning’s Work and Learning Knowledge Centre (2006–2009) and the Centre for Workplace Skills (2009–2012). Most of his international work was done with Colleges and Institutes Canada (2013-2020) where he led a capacity building project in Mozambique (2013 to 2015) and managed monitoring and evaluation for all CICan international programs. He joined the Future Skills Centre in 2022 where he is currently the Director of Programs. Alex lives in Ottawa with his partner Eliane and their two children. 

Laurna Strikwerda

Director, Project Development and Research, Canada Green Building Council (CAGBC)

Laurna Strikwerda leads CAGBC’s research, partnerships, and capacity building efforts to advance green building in Canada. She has 15 years of experience advancing green building, sustainability and community engagement projects in Canada and the US.