BuildForce looks ahead:
Slow growth predicted for
Canadian construction industry
Canadian Design and Construction Report staff writer
BuildForce Canada, in its annual national survey of the
  
   
  
 
 
construction industry, indicates that construction employ-
ment will decline slightly this year coupled with an overall
  
 
 
  
slight sector  investment
growth. Despite a seven per cent predicted decline in residential
construction, labour shortages are still anticipated because
BuildForce projects the rapid retirement of an anticipated
21 per cent of the construction workforce.

“That impending wave of baby boom retirements we’ve
been hearing so much about is here,” said BuildForce ex-
ecutive director Rosemary Sparks. “This decade, as many
as 248,000 skilled workers are retiring en mass. It’s a
tremendous loss of experience that’s even harder to make
up in a slow economy.”
BuildForce Canada’s 2017-2026 Construction and Main-
tenance Looking Forward forecast shows construction ac-
tivity is expected to soften across most provinces as new
residential activity declines and major projects reach com-
pletion. Labour requirements will vary by province with resource
driven markets such as Alberta and Newfoundland and
Labrador continuing to weaken as current projects wind
down. In other provinces, including British Columbia, New
Brunswick and Ontario, ongoing work, along with the an-
ticipated start of planned utility, pipeline, transportation
and other infrastructure projects, will create new job op-
portunities. The timing of proposed projects varies and
labour requirements are unevenly distributed across the
provinces. 
 
   
  
 
Over the latter half of the forecast period, project com-
pletions and declining housing activity return construction
  
 
 
employment  back to near
2016 levels in  most
provinces. 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
The Canadian Design and Construction Report — Spring 2017 – 5