"Can we afford to let significant expertise leave our industry? No," said Brian Maynard of the Canadian Association of Petroleum Producers. His industry needs to hang on to every experienced worker it can.

"Holding on to those who are a little older for a lot longer is part of the solution. As you point out, we'll see a changing demographic in the industry," said Maynard. So the oil and gas industry is targeting non-traditional groups, such as women, First Nations people, and immigrants.  The challenge could be how to train them.

Colleges and universities in both Calgary and Edmonton can't keep up with the number of students who want to enrol in energy-related programs.  Every year, dozens of students are turned away, and that puts more pressure on the oil industry when it comes to staff shortages. But oil companies are starting to train on the job. Maynard says, they have no choice.

"To not avail of the opportunity means lost growth opportunity.  The economy will not realize its full potential.  Out industry is generating a lot of benefit for the economy right now, not only the amount of jobs and royalties and everything else that we pay, but schools, hospitals and everything else to be built," said Maynard.

The biggest shortages are being felt in the construction of oil and gas facilities.  But not everyone thinks the industry needs to hire hundreds of thousands of workers.

"Once the construction of the facility is done, how many people will be needed to operate it? A pipeline may involve 200 to 300 people (to build), but the actual operation may require only 10 or 11," said Bill Gwozd of the Ziff Energy Group.

But it's clear that no matter the number, over the next 10 years, the face of the industry will change dramatically.