FAQ
What is Construction for Canadians?
Construction for Canadians is a campaign supported by Canada’s national, provincial, and regional construction associations to emphasize the importance of construction to building the strong Canada that Canadians deserve.
How can I get involved?
Talk to your local candidates about the importance of construction in your community. Check out our Election Advocacy Toolkit for more information. Help spread the word with our Social Media Shareables.
What are the barriers to construction in Canada?
Lack of investment: Canada’s infrastructure is chronically underfunded leading to a rapid deterioration of our infrastructure and our global reputation as a reliable commercial partner.
Workforce challenges: Construction will need to fill hundreds of thousands of jobs by 2028 brought on by shifting demographics and retirements. Labour shortages mixed with record-low levels of unemployment indicate the supply of workers is insufficient to fill current vacancies and meet construction demands.
Outdated procurement: Outdated procurement strategies and excessive red tape leave little room for creativity, innovation, and fair risk-sharing. This delays critical construction projects.
How can the next federal government support construction and growth in Canada?
Invest in infrastructure: An investment in infrastructure is an investment in Canada’s growth economy and the health, safety and well-being of Canadians. From hospitals, schools and roads to warehouses, water plants and highways, the economy needs reliable infrastructure to provide access for Canadians.
Scaling up trade infrastructure will also build supply chain capacity, support emerging technologies, create transformational jobs, and fuel our global competitiveness. A more productive economy depends on the infrastructure required to support trade across and beyond a more interconnected, collaborative Canada. We work faster and better when we work together.
Because construction isn’t just about building homes – it’s about building a country. More and more municipalities have reported pausing their housing development due to the lack of functional visible and invisible infrastructure upon which homes are built. This issue will only become more common unless it is addressed through significant investment in foundational housing-enabling infrastructure. From roads, to water and sewer systems, to public and social infrastructure, and more, construction is responsible for the infrastructure that shapes our homes, neighbourhoods, communities, and our lives.
Grow our workforce: We need to inspire and incentivize new generations of workers to join the industry and make it easier for immigrants and temporary foreign workers to alleviate retirements and address skills shortages.
Modernize procurement: Federal procurement strategies need to adapt to encourage productivity and innovation, account for long-term value and sustainability, promote the use of alternative delivery models, and support shared risk. Innovative procurement and delivery methods can improve productivity, enable cost savings, and shorten timelines for construction projects.
