Industry’s role in growing and sustaining a workforce key to meeting housing targets – Building Excellence

September 25, 2024

Canada’s housing shortage is being felt across the country, and while market conditions vary from coast to coast, one thing is constant – a shortage of workers.

The federal government has stated that Canada needs to build 3.5 million homes over the next decade to close the housing supply gap and help restore affordability for Canadians – that’s over and above the 2.3 million than we’d normally build. This means that the industry would need to more than double housing starts to reach these ambitious targets.

Welcome steps

While much more still needs to be done regarding policy change to pursue such a goal, and governments have made welcome steps over the past year to help spur homebuilding, one area that will continue to need much more support is re-supplying the industry’s workforce. Right now, builders in many parts of the country are faced with one of the most challenging economic environments in recent history, which has resulted in slowing starts. But if Canada continues to lower interest rates and can address the excessive mortgage barriers preventing buyers from buying, and other policies continue to come forward to allow more supply, then construction will ramp back up and our industry will again be faced extreme workforce challenges.