By Leah Nord, Senior Director of Operations, CHBA
BuildForce Canada, which provides reliable labour market information, tools and resources for the construction industry, released an Immigration Report Update in March 2024 that CHBA helped inform. The report tells the now well-known story of Canada’s aging population and illustrates why immigration has become the primary driver of population growth and the answer to labour shortages.
In 1972, 47 per cent of Canadians were under 25 years old. By 2021, that percentage shrank to 28 per cent. The impact of these demographic shifts has and will continue to be significant. BuildForce Canada estimates that 22 per cent of residential construction workers will retire by 2033, with 40 per cent of the workforce aging to 55-plus years old. The Government of Canada’s focus on addressing housing affordability and building an additional 3.5 million homes (for a total of 5.8 million) over the next decade would mean that the residential construction workforce would need to grow to more than 1.03 million workers by 2033 – a staggering 83 per cent above the status quo. In addition, to address the Government of Canada’s net zero and carbon neutral goals, BuildForce Canada’s April 2024 report, Building a Greener Future, found that as many as 16,300 new jobs relating to fuel switching would be needed in the residential sector alone, while a further 40,600 would be needed to perform energy-efficiency retrofits.
Although there have and will continue to be concerted recruitment efforts among Canada’s domestic population, including significant efforts to diversify the residential construction workforce, we (alongside other sectors) will need new Canadians to address increasing labour shortages.
Declining number of skilled workers
Since 1967, Canada’s immigration system has remained largely unchanged, awarding points based on education, age and language proficiency. The impact on the residential construction sector is clearly demonstrated in the chart below. Most recently, between 2016 and 2021: 75 per cent of entrants had a bachelor’s degree or higher, and less than two per cent had an apprenticeship and/or non-apprenticeable trade certificate (which is also a considerable decrease from a nine-per-cent high between 1980 and 1990).
In 2013, the Government of Canada introduced the Federal Skilled Trades Program (FSTP) which was folded into the Express Entry program two years later. However, eligibility is onerous, and, for example, between 2020 and 2022 only 1,500 new Canadians came through the FSTP, which represents a mere 0.5 per cent of the total admission under Express Entry programs.
Changes are coming, however. In May 2023, the government announced a category-based selection process to meet specific economic goals. CHBA applauded the inclusion of trades occupations as one of the six categories. However, there are still challenges for residential construction: The professions prioritized and eligible within the trades category are not aligned with the needs of the sector, and there is no way to track if/how/where any become employed building homes.
The solution: Modernize Canada’s immigration system to support win-win labour market integration
CHBA served as a member of the Advisory Council for BuildForce Canada’s immigration report and co-developed four overarching recommendations for needed immigration reform: Address educational bias; federal-provincial/territorial alignment; involve industry; and support competency-based assessments.
For the residential construction sector specifically, CHBA recommends that the Government of Canada work with the residential construction sector to:
1) Align immigration processes with labour market needs:
• Further enhance the recently announced trades category-based selection for Express Entry to support the sector, such as general labourers, trades helpers, carpenter assistants, concrete finishers and drywall installers.
• Identify three to five target countries for career promotion and recruitment, validation of qualifications and possibly employment pre-screening.
2) Facilitate labour market integration:
• Create a national online residential construction health and safety language program (that includes an option to complete pre-arrival).
• Develop a framework for national competency-based assessment for general labourers in the residential construction sector.
• Support employers in their efforts to recruit, onboard, retain and promote workers to create sustained talent pipelines and ensure new Canadians are meaningfully integrated into the Canadian workforce.
3) Change the Temporary Foreign Worker Program to better facilitate hiring within the industry, including the above-mentioned online health and safety language training and targeting promising countries for promotion and assessment, as well as creating pathways to permanent residence.
Leah Nord, Senior Director of Operations, CHBA
