While Nova Scotia’s Premier Tim Houston was recently in Ottawa to talk Wind West and natural resource development, Deloitte Canada’s CEO was out East at the same time, visiting the company’s Halifax office. Anthony Viel was talking to employees about evolving opportunities for Nova Scotia in clean energy, buoyed by what he calls “terrific alignment” of governments and business.

“It might not feel like (consensus), day to day, but when I compare it around other parts of our country, there’s terrific alignment around this energy,” he told Atlantic Business Magazine.

“And I’m very, very bullish that we can land on some things and really do some nation-impacting things together, not the least of which the projects we’re talking around with wind, but also there’s some interesting things around hydrogen we’ve been involved in,” he said.

A service company, Deloitte staff can be working at any time on anything from investigating a commercial client’s energy options, to helping understand energy regulations, to building proposals for tax incentives.

The company has already been working for clients in relation to wind and wind-hydrogen, Viel said. He acknowledged that advancing something like Wind West, a “once in a generation opportunity,” opens many doors.

Wind West is the name the Houston government placed on a potential, mass build of wind energy offshore Nova Scotia, paired with onshore transmission lines for shipping produced electricity to the largest, power hungry markets. The capital cost is estimated at about $60 billion.

It may be early days, but the idea has received serious attention from Ottawa. It wasn’t a Top 5 pick but was named of interest for the country’s new Major Projects Office. And it was central to meetings between Premier Houston and both federal Minister of Energy Tim Hodgson and Prime Minister Mark Carney in Ottawa during early October.

At the same time, Viel said picturing Wind West and other development as part of the future here isn’t a challenge for him or the company. A greater challenge is figuring out how the company will develop what it needs in terms of the labour force, to meet all the related contract needs.

He pointed to the ongoing demographic shift in Atlantic Canada, mentioning the labour challenge of the next decade is nothing specific to Deloitte.

In late September, for example, RBC reported on a final wave and peak of baby boomer retirements, after an estimated 5.2 million boomers have already left the labour force in initial waves. The final and peak crunch runs between 2024 and 2030.

“As this demographic shift plays out, we’re all going to be scrapping for talent,” Viel said.

“It’s not just (having) individuals. It’s individuals with the right skill set. So, the ones that are more comfortable working with technology. They’re working with AI in particular. Because a lot of the workflows are being augmented with AI,” he added.

As part of its efforts to be ready to compete as needed for contracts, Deloitte is working with employees to upscale skills already in-house and add new skills in relevant AI technologies for existing workers.

“We’re going to have a battle like everybody else to make sure we’ve got enough capable talent,” Viel said.

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