James Hogarth
National Executive Director,
H2H Canada
Helmets to Hardhats Canada is turning military service into skilled trade careers and helping solve the country’s growing construction labour shortage.
When a member of the Canadian Armed Forces (CAF) hangs up their uniform, the mission doesn’t end — it changes. The discipline, resilience, and team-first mentality forged through military service don’t disappear when they leave the CAF. For thousands of Canadian veterans, those qualities are now building something new: a career, a community, and a stronger national workforce.
Helmets to Hardhats (H2H) Canada bridges the military community and the unionized construction industry. Its mission is to place veterans, reservists, senior cadets, and military family members into meaningful second careers within Canada’s Building Trades Unions, complete with competitive wages, benefits, and pension plans.
The need has never been greater. Canada’s construction sector faces a generational workforce gap, with thousands of skilled tradespeople expected to retire in the coming years. At the same time, thousands of CAF members transition to civilian life each year, carrying discipline, adaptability, safety awareness, and team-based leadership. These are exactly the qualities employers in the skilled trades are seeking.
These are people who already know how to show up, work hard, and perform under pressure. Our job is to connect them with an industry that needs them.
Connecting veterans with opportunities
“The military community represents an underutilized talent pool in this country,” says James Hogarth, National Executive Director of H2H Canada. “These are people who already know how to show up, work hard, and perform under pressure. Our job is to connect them with an industry that needs them.”
Veterans who have come through the program are building skilled trades careers across every province as millwrights, boilermakers, pipefitters, elevator constructors, carpenters, operating engineers, and more. Some made the transition within weeks of reaching out. Others discovered a career path they hadn’t previously considered.
“H2H helped ease my transition into the civilian workforce,” wrote one veteran now working as an Ironworker with The International Association of Bridge, Structural, Ornamental and Reinforcing Iron Workers. “Straight away I was doing their training and am now hired on as an apprentice.”
Serving and building Canada
For employers and union partners, the value is equally clear. Tony Fanelli, Executive Director of the Construction Labour Relations Association of Ontario, noted that candidates consistently demonstrate the punctuality, efficiency, and on-budget performance that contractors depend on.
At a time when every skilled worker counts, H2H is making sure none are left behind. It also supports women entering the trades, reservists building civilian careers while continuing to serve, and senior cadets and Junior Canadian Rangers taking their first steps toward a skilled trade.
Canada’s skilled labour shortage is a national challenge. H2H is proving, one placement at a time, that those who served Canada in uniform are ready and able to keep building it.
To learn more, visit helmetstohardhats.ca.
This project is funded in part by the Government of Canada’s Canadian Apprenticeship Strategy.
