Photo: Contributed

Construction-industry leaders in the Okanagan have sounded the alarm about how a shortage of tradespeople in the valley is driving up the cost of building and forcing many to wait or pay big to find contractors.

Organizations like the Southern Interior Construction Association pin the shortage on factors like retiring baby boomers and fewer young people entering the trades, but local workers say the reason is far simpler: money.

“It’s not that we don’t have the skilled people in the Okanagan, the problem is the wages,” says electrician Marnitz Kritzinger. “It’s been a problem for quite a number of years.”

Kritzinger says contractors in Northern Alberta are paying two-to-three times what their counterparts in the Okanagan are, and that's pulling tradespeople struggling to survive in the Okanagan out of the valley.

For more on why one construction company head says local wages "probably do" need to go up, as well as some hard numbers on how big the wage gap is, check out the full story on Castanet's sister business news website, Okanagan Edge.