Mississauga City Council is taking the uncommon step of requesting a Minister’s Zoning Order to expedite construction of a huge and potentially lucrative film studio project in the city’s southeast end.

With the lodging industry reeling from the effects of the COVID-19 pandemic, the number of hotel construction projects planned in Canada fell by 15 percent in the first quarter of this year.

Several municipal and community-infrastructure projects around Ottawa will receive more than $11 million in funding from the federal and provincial governments to help respond to the impacts of the COVID-19 pandemic.

Tighter public-health measures aimed at controlling the further spread of COVID-19 brought employment lower in several provinces, including Ontario. Nationally, construction shed 12,700 jobs.

The increase of 5.6 percent in the cost of residential construction is the largest on record, and is largely due to rising demand and material shortages. Non-residential building construction prices, meanwhile, rose by 1.5 percent.