Industry Voices Gather in Toronto to Share Perspectives on Building a Stronger Operational Workforce at CanREA Operators Summit 2026

With Canada’s renewables projects reaching full lifecycle maturity, the country’s energy landscape is set to enter a new era. At this year’s CanREA Operators Summit, leaders in the Operations & Maintenance (O&M) community addressed this theme of the industry’s “Coming of Age” in the spirit of handling ageing infrastructure and using new technologies to meet the needs of an evolving workforce. Dan Ortega, Network Development Manager at GWO, met with owner operators and asset managers to share knowledge and discuss solutions.

Putting Renewable Power on the Map

As the second-largest source of renewable electricity in Canada after hydropower, wind represents the main source of new renewable capacity additions in recent years.

According to Canada’s Renewable Energy Market Outlook 2025, Canada’s installed electricity generation capacity currently totals around 150 GW, deriving 17 GW from wind and 2,3 GW from solar. The forecasted energy deployment for each of these sources between now and 2035 is expected to total between 30 and 51 GW of new wind power and 17 and 26 GW of new solar power.

Preparing the Workforce for Rising Energy Needs

As the demand for new energy generation rises in Canada, establishing training pathways for the energy workforce is an important component of ensuring there is sufficient access to training. This is especially true for the O&M workforce demand share, as capacity expands and turbine fleets age, corresponding to a global trend.

Reflecting on the sixth edition of CanREA Operators Summit, Jakob Lau Holst, CEO of GWO, remarked:

The energy transition is picking up pace, and we see a dramatically increased need for skilled workforce. This is felt in both installation and O&M segments of the value chain. The evolving company specialisation of the various types of work on assets throughout the turbine lifecycle represents a challenge for coherent workforce development and increases the need of employers and duty holders to rely on industry standards for training and recognition of skills. This is especially the case when the majority of technicians needed from 2030 and beyond are teenagers today. Some good news for a mature market like Canada is that as the share of O&M work increases, the industry can offer localised, attractive career pathways with better talent retention.
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