This Skills Shortage in the Context of an Aging Population: The Atlantic Provinces Handbook provides a factual starting point to better understand skills needs in the context of an ageing population. It has been produced as a supporting reference for the Atlantic Provinces Task Force – a project of the Workplace Partners Panel. The business and labour members of the Task Force will be hosting a series of deliberative dialogues that will involve a wide range of community perspectives – including representatives from colleges and universities, from all levels of government, from students, immigration settlement organizations and from others joining the discussion through an on-line forum.

Given the breadth of input and the many public policy challenges that flow from the topic – the challenge has been to produce a reference tool that is inclusive but not necessary exhaustive. Solutions to the Atlantic provinces’ human resource challenges will not be solved through a technical exercise, and will not be found “in the numbers”. Rather, these challenges require a co-operative approach that brings together business and labour, along with government and other stakeholders, to engage in constructive and deliberative dialogue on labour market, skills and shortages issues. This is the goal of the Workplace Partners panel.