April 2021

Construction requirements across Canada are expected to rebound in 2021 in the wake of the COVID-19 pandemic and rise through the coming decade – albeit at more muted levels than in the past 10 years. The strength and pace of recovery, however, will vary among provinces, and will depend significantly on the rollout of COVID-19 vaccines, the recovery in consumer and business confidence, the global demand for Canadian exports and the lifting of restrictions on international travel. This is according to the latest labour market forecast released at the end of March by BuildForce Canada.

BuildForce Canada’s 2021–2030 Construction and Maintenance Looking Forward national report forecasts construction employment to rise by 64,900 workers over the next decade. This represents an increase of 6 per cent over 2020 workforce levels. While the outlook forecasts much of that growth to take place through 2025, by the end of the decade, the respective provincial industries will have to cope with the need to replace nearly 259,100 workers, or about 22 per cent of the current labour force, due to retirement.

“Canada’s construction outlook is strong for 2021 and well into the middle portion of the decade thanks to gains in the residential and non-residential sectors,” said BuildForce Canada executive director Bill Ferreira. “And while we forecast growth to slow over the later years of our forecast period, we nonetheless expect that the industry will be challenged to recruit more than 309,000 new workers to replace retirees and keep pace with demand.”

BuildForce Canada anticipates that the non-residential sector will lead industry growth between 2021 and 2023 and be driven by a large list of public transit, health care, education, roadwork and other civil infrastructure projects. Overall, non-residential employment is projected to increase by more than 39,800 workers between 2021 and 2025, and another 5,000 to 2030. 

Activity across the Atlantic provinces is expected to vary. Newfoundland and Labrador will see a modest recovery through 2021, but long-term growth will be constrained. The forecasts for New Brunswick and Nova Scotia, meanwhile, will be bolstered by in-migration trends. Prince Edward Island was the only province of the four to experience a rise in construction employment in 2020, and that increase is expected to continue through 2022.

Quebec’s market is expected to rebound from the pandemic in 2021 and grow through 2024 on the strength of private-sector spending and strong levels of government investment.

Ontario will be driven by a growing pipeline of major infrastructure projects across all regions. An additional recovery in commercial and industrial investment will bring labour demands to a peak in 2026.

In 2020, Manitoba experienced its first year of negative construction growth in several years. Declines in major-project requirements and lower levels of institutional and residential growth may cause employment levels to drop slightly – by 1 per cent – over the forecast period.

A broad-based recovery is expected to take hold in Saskatchewan in 2021, as education, health care, utility and mining investment combine to boost growth across most construction segments to an expected peak in 2023.

Alberta, which was among the provinces hardest hit by the pandemic, could see further challenges ahead. Ongoing uncertainty in the energy sector and further deferrals and cancellations of major investments have significantly tempered expectations for a strong near-term recovery. A more material expansion is expected after 2023.

Finally, British Columbia is poised to enter the steepest period of growth in its forecast period. The province will add more than 11,400 non-residential workers through 2022, before shedding as many as half of those gains through 2026, before renewed growth later in the period adds new jobs. By 2030, employment is expected to increase by 9,900 workers compared to 2020.

“The unevenness with which provinces and even regions within those provinces will experience construction growth over the forecast period suggests that intra- and interprovincial mobility, as well as drawing workers from other industries, will be key to meeting construction demands,” said Ferreira.

The development of skilled tradespersons in the construction industry takes years, and often requires participation in a provincial apprenticeship program. As such, replacing retiring workers typically requires several years of pre-planning to avoid the creation of skills gaps. 

Clearly, an ongoing commitment to training and apprenticeship development will be necessary to ensure there are sufficient numbers of qualified tradespeople to sustain a skilled labour force over the long term. What is yet unclear is how the pandemic will impact registration rates going forward. Limited data collected to date suggests that the pandemic has resulted in a steep decline in new registrations relative to employment across the country. It has also imposed significant obstacles to the in-person delivery of training, testing and certification, which may impact near-term completion rates.

Building a sustainable and diverse labour force will require the construction and maintenance industry to increase recruitment from groups traditionally underrepresented in the current construction labour force, including women, Indigenous people and new Canadians.

BuildForce Canada is a national industry-led organization that represents all sectors of Canada’s construction industry. Its mandate is to provide accurate and timely labour market data and analysis, as well as programs and initiatives to help manage labour force requirements and build the capacity and capability of Canada’s construction and maintenance industry. Visit www.constructionforecasts.ca.

Even at the best of times, social media platforms can be a minefield. But that shouldn’t deter you from sharing your content with the online community.

Social media can be challenging to navigate, yet it’s also the most efficient means of travel for your blogs, newsletters and videos. Social media is where you’ll find clients and customers.

Your presence in social media circles is equally as important as sharing your message and interacting with your audience.

Here are a few things to keep in mind if your company is struggling to find relevance among communication epicentres like Facebook, Twitter, Instagram and TikTok:

Play to your strengths.

Know who you are. Don’t get swept up in a blitz that steers you away from what you’re good at. People follow platforms that align with their core values and interests. Straying from your identity would only confuse your followers.

Listen to the voices.

Read the comments. Listen to what the online community is saying to you or about you.

Adapt.

Your audience has made the effort to read your post and leave a comment or retweet and share with a wider network. Take advantage of that attention and interact. Learning and adapting from your audience is a key to success.

Be original. Be authentic.

Choosing neutrality gets you nowhere.

Brand authenticity connects you with your desired audience. Being open and honest with your audience should dictate your social media presence.

Decide on a moral direction and be true to those beliefs. Go all in on authenticity.

Creativity for the win.

No risk, no reward. Don’t be afraid to take a risk with your posts and be creative and interesting.

Being unique on social media with fresh ideas will help cut through the noise and get you and your company noticed. Be creative and punchy with your words and pair them with attractive visuals like photos and videos that will catch anyone’s attention.

Follow SHCA on Facebook and Twitter.

The Ministry of Highways is pleased to announce the official launch of its new Doing Business with the Ministry website. The current site has reached its end of life and we are now transitioning to the new site, which is located on Publications Saskatchewan. The ministry chose to move to Publications Saskatchewan to be consistent with all other ministries.

The new URL for the site is www.saskatchewan.ca/highways-business. Please update your bookmarks and use this URL moving forward. You will notice a new category structure on the site. Although there is a different structure, existing documents were not revised.

The new site has many features not previously available. These include:

• A search function
• The ability to tag specific documents or categories for quick reference
• Availability on any iOS or android device with an internet connection
• A future opportunity for push notifications to users

Click here to download a how-to document and video that outlines navigating the site and using some of its features, including creating a Saskatchewan account.

Future opportunities are in the works for live demos of the site, which will include a chance to ask questions to our project support office. In the meantime, please visit the site and familiarize yourself with the new category structure and features.  

If you have any questions or feedback on the new system, reach out to the project support office at mhiknowledgewarehouse@gov.sk.ca.

The Canadian Construction Association (CCA) has released a research paper, Strength, resilience, sustainability: Canada’s construction sector recommendations on adapting to climate change. The paper highlights the benefits of sustainable and resilient infrastructure that can withstand the effects of climate change and stresses the imperative of investing in sustainable infrastructure, particularly as COVID-19 economic recovery efforts are underway.

Strength, resilience, sustainability explores both the global and Canadian construction industries’ adaptation measures to date and uses that insight to inform recommendations for how the industry can work alongside the government to accelerate progress in mitigating the impact of climate change on infrastructure.

“The construction industry in Canada has already implemented many sustainable practices and is eager to continue doing so, but a major challenge we face is the need for government investment and a more supportive environment for fostering innovation within the sector,” said Mary Van Buren, CCA president. “Economic recovery discussions are an opportune time for the government and our industry to partner to ensure that large-scale infrastructure is built with resiliency that can withstand changing weather patterns and events.”

To build Canada’s future clean economy and create good jobs, a change to the way that public infrastructure projects are determined and funded is required. The Canadian construction industry contributes $141 billion to the national GDP each year and employs approximately 1.4 million people across the country – making the potential to affect change in this sector significant. One barrier to green investment is the higher upfront costs, even though there can be lower costs over the lifetime of the asset. In fact, research indicates that benefits of investing in green infrastructure can outweigh the costs by a ratio of six to one.

Climate-related risks to physical infrastructure in Canada include damage from flooding, extreme precipitation, high winds or ice storms, wildfires, power outages and grid failures associated with heatwaves and high demand for air conditioning, and thawing permafrost, among others. To address some of these issues, the sector has already introduced innovations in building infrastructure that is more resilient to climate change; applied building retrofits for greater energy efficiency; integrated new (or time-tested) materials into projects; found opportunity in the growing need for transparency of climate risk of infrastructure; and maximized partnerships where possible.

The federal government has a strong role to play in changing its procurement practices to allow for higher upfront costs and to de-risk innovation. Without changes to existing practices to consider climate resiliency in infrastructure, climate change costs for Canada could escalate from roughly $5 billion per year in 2020 to between $21 and $43 billion per year by the 2050s.

To learn more about the recommendations, read the research paper and executive summary.

1. Where are you from?

Saskatchewan! (Unity, Meadow Lake and Saskatoon)

2. Who do you credit to getting you where you are today?

My dad

3. What is your career history?

Ministry of Highways, Consulting, and Contractor

4. What’s the best peice of business or career advice you have been given?

Be kind. Listen. Everyone’s experiences are their truth.

5. What’s your favourite think about Saskatchewan and working in the industry?

Hands down, the people.

6. What is your idea of perfect happiness?

Hiking

7. Which living person do you most admire?

The Dalai Lama

8. Which talent would you most like to have?

Unwavering compassion

9. What is your most treasured possession?

My health

10. Who are your favourite writers?

Ajahn Brahm, Donna Tartt

Read the latest issue of Think BIG magazine.

Think BIG magazine – Quarter 1, 2021

If you’re a local road construction contractor, there’s plenty of good news headed your way.

The Saskatchewan Association of Rural Municipalities (SARM), thanks to substantial stimulus funding from both the federal and provincial governments, has more than 60 projects on the market and available to bidding contractors.

That total is expected to grow closer to 100 throughout the spring and summer.

“This is a total anomaly as far as the number of projects available,” said Terry Hoeving, SARM’s program manager, infrastructure.

Typically, SARM’s annual budget is $15 million for rural roads, bridges and culverts. She said a normal year would see between seven to 1o road projects. This year, there are 62 and counting.

“This is great news for our rural municipalities,” she said. “We haven’t had an influx in funding like this in several years. This is unprecedented. The funding was there not only to build up our infrastructure, but also to help get those residents to work and our contractors working.”

Hoeving expects a steady trickle of projects being made available to contractors between April and September.

Total funding for rural roads over the next three years is $44.7 million. The goal is to enhance 163,000 kilometres of roadways in close to 100 RMs. Hoeving believes this is the most extensive coverage of roads in the country.

SARM covers four categories of road infrastructure, including the base and sub-base. It no longer covers pavement. It will cover a clay cap, which is the most common among the RMs; it covers grading to improve the shoulders and the crown; it also covers a granular seal.

SARM initially announced 30 projects available for tenders in July 2020. An additional 30 projects hit the market in October. SARM currently is waiting for provincial approval to unveil a third round of projects.

“We’ll definitely have enough projects and work for a long time,” she said.

In addition to road work, Hoeving says approximately 1,400 municipal bridges across the province are in need of repair.

Total funding for bridge and culvert work is pegged at $31.5 million over the next four years.

The program that identifies rural road or bridge and culvert repair or building supports the economic development of the province. Funding for such projects is based on: Truck traffic; the length of detour if road is closed; various economic generators or industries that use the road in question.

Each RM qualifies for up to $500,000 in 50/50 cost-share grant funding per fiscal year.

Projects included this year are valued anywhere between $12 million and $200,000.

“Every project is important to each RM, whether it be the $12-million projects or the smaller ones. They all mean something different to each RM. They’re equally as important,” Hoeving said. “We hope that all RMs are applying to the program so that we can spread the funding across the province. We hope this creates jobs, boosts the economy and enhances people’s quality of life.”

While COVID-19 continues to decimate our lives – both personally and professionally – there is some good news to share.

In an effort to boost our struggling economy, stimulus funding from the federal and provincial governments has been received at the Saskatchewan Association of Rural Municipalities (SARM) head office. More than 60 projects are available to bidding contractors, with more projects to come over the next several weeks and months.

Don’t be surprised if we see close to 100 projects come to tender throughout the spring and summer.

SARM’s annual budget is usually around $14 to 15 million for roads, bridge and culverts, with approximately seven to 10 road projects each year. This year, we’ve already seen more than 60 road projects come available. More are on the way.

In fact, total funding for rural roads over the next three years is close to $45 million. SARM wants to enhance 163,000 kilometres of roadways in close to 100 RMs across the province. 

SARM initially announced 30 projects available for tenders in July 2020. An additional 30 projects hit the market in October and now they are waiting for provincial approval to unveil a third round of projects. 

In addition to road work, we’re likely to see ample projects that focus on bridge work – approximately 1,400 municipal bridges across the province are in need of repair. 

Total funding for bridge and culvert work is pegged at $31.5 million over the next four years.

Combine the wealth of projects from SARM with the work that is surely to come in relation to the Lake Diefenbaker irrigation project and we’re optimistic our industry will be humming for the next decade and longer.

More good news came from the provincial budget announcement on April 6. It was a surprise, albeit a pleasant one, to see the government invest more heavily than expected through the Ministry of Highways.

This is welcomed news for our industry and news we should celebrate. Though we do realize and respect the fact that a lot of people in the province have suffered losses, both with loved ones and financial assets. 

Let’s get to work! Stay safe, everyone.