RCCAO identifies three infrastructure priorities in pre-budget submission
The Residential and Civil Construction Alliance of Ontario (RCCAO) has outlined three steps that it says the federal government must take to support infrastructure construction in Ontario and across the country more broadly.
In its annual pre-budget submission, the council calls on the government to reform aspects of the immigration system to bring more construction workers to Canada, to continue to provide financial assistance to municipalities as they recover from the COVID-19 pandemic, and to streamline regulatory processes to shorten the development approvals process while lowering compliance costs.
Enacted together, RCCAO says, these items will boost the labour pool available to build up communities, ensure stable funding to complete capital projects and repairs, and reduce costly delays that hold up projects.
Reforms to the immigration system, the submission says, “would allow for the development of a long-term pipeline of skilled talent.”
It is expected that more than 86,000 construction workers across Ontario will retire by the end of this decade. Considering the projected volume of work, industry will need to hire, train and retain almost 100,000 additional workers by the end of this decade.
“The labour supply shortage,” says RCCAO, “is one of the single biggest challenges facing the Ontario construction market and if not addressed, can threaten our ability to build the critical infrastructure needed.
Furthermore, absent additional support, municipalities will be forced to decrease project tenders to balance budgets. RCCAO predicts this in turn will result in lay-offs across the construction sector.
A report commissioned by the council in November 2020 suggests that as many as 41,000 construction-related jobs are at risk if building permits decline by even a third
“This level of job losses would directly impact Canada’s economy and have long-term repercussions for the state of Ontario’s infrastructure,” the council says.
Finally, the RCCAO submission calls for the federal government to work with its provincial counterparts to deliver building applications and permits through an online system. Doing do, it says would not only speed up construction, but also help to ensure faster distribution of earmarked government funding.
“These three priorities are crucial to addressing long-term critical infrastructure needs that will serve Canadians and the economy well into the future,” said Nadia Todorova, Executive Director of RCCAO. “They will enhance the ability of industry to build critical infrastructure projects on-time and on-budget, while ensuring the needed infrastructure is in place to serve Canadians for years to come.”
RCCAO’s formal submission is available on the organization’s website.