Ontario's construction industry faces a severe labour crunch and it seems it's about to get worse

Paul Franssen has been a bricklayer with his family-run firm Franssen Brothers Masonry in London, Ont., for 40 years. 

After four decades of lugging bricks and mortar through mud and up scaffolding, he's looking forward to retirement. 

"It's hard on the body," he said. "My son is going to take over and I hope to work for him some day."

After he retires, Franssen plans to work "here and there," knowing he can pick and choose because the huge demand for his skills will continue well after his son Ben, 19, takes over the business. 

The father and son represent the changing demographics of an industry facing a severe labour crunch. One-fifth of Canada's construction workforce is nearing retirement as the industry struggles to recruit new workers to fill a gap of 80,000 vacancies, according to a recent report by CIBC deputy chief economist Benjamin Tal. 

300,000 workers to retire in Canada next decade

Tal estimates some 300,000 workers will retire in the coming decade, meaning the industry will be desperate for new blood like Paul's son Ben, who as an apprentice is often the youngest man on the job site by far. 

"I don't see too many people my age," he said, adding that, among his friends, he's alone in choosing the skilled trades. 

"They're all going into law, business — comfortable stuff."

WATCH | Ben Franssen says he's an outlier among his friends

1 year ago

Duration 0:36

Ben Franssen, 19, who is currently apprenticing as a bricklayer, says unlike his friends he opted for the skilled trades.

In Ontario, where the rapid pace of construction is being fuelled by voracious demand for housing, 82,600 construction workers, or 18 per cent of the industry's workforce, are set to retire in the next 10 years, according to a report from construction lobby group BuildForce Canada.  

We need as many people in the skilled trades as possible.- Jared Zaifman, London Home Builders Association

It means the construction labour shortage, which Tal estimates has reduced the industry's efficiency by 30 per cent, will only make it more difficult for builders and developers to meet demand, especially in a province where the government wants 1.5 million new homes built by 2030. 

"We're losing a lot of our senior folks, which has been difficult, especially as we need them to train up apprentices," said Jared Zaifman, chief executive officer of the London Home Builders Association, which is trying to build 47,000 homes before 2031.

Loosened rules around training 

"We need as many people in the skilled trades as possible," Zaifman said, adding the province has made a number of changes to help get more people into the trades, including lowering apprenticing requirements to get a licence. 

Before the changes, an apprentice had to be supervised by three journeymen to get a licence. In 2018, the province changed the requirements to a one-to-one training ratio, significantly lowering the number of senior workers required to certify a new generation. 

"So obviously, with the diminishing amount of individuals that are journeyman that are licensed, it was difficult to get that many people," Zaifman said. "The industry was really happy about this." 

The change is one of many the Ontario Progressive Conservative government has made, lowering regulations for businesses to create blue-collar jobs. It's a marked departure from the dominant educational philosophy in the province that, for decades, favoured getting a higher education over getting trained in the trades. 

Ontario has long favoured academics over trades

"We've basically been telling people that the only way to be successful in life is by going to university. We made a commitment with Doug Ford to change that narrative," said Ontario Labour Minister Monte McNaughton.

WATCH | Paul Franssen says you can't build a house without builders

1 year ago

Duration 0:42

Paul Franssen, 58, is a mason who believes the roots of Ontario's construction labour shortage began a long time ago when schools stopped offering shop classes.

In the last year, Ontario has signed 27,000 people to the skilled trades, a 24 per cent increase over the year before. McNaughton said the province is using an "all-hands-on-deck approach," which includes building skilled trade training centres across the province, letting trades recruiters into high schools and even loosening the rules on how early vocational high school students can start their apprenticeships. 

Despite the effort, it may not be enough. With more than 80,000 construction retirements in the next decade in Ontario alone, overall recruitment efforts will need to fill some 118,900 positions in construction by 2033, according to the BuildForce Canada report. 

It means the province's aggressive target of 1.5 million new homes by 2030 might not happen, especially when the rest of Canada faces a similar problem, only on a larger scale.

The CMHC said last month that Canada needs 5.8 million homes to restore housing affordability for everyone in the country, something Tal said likely won't happen given the current labour shortage.

"The reality is that, as big as those numbers are, the real gap is even larger, as official figures (upon which those estimates are based on) grossly undercount housing demand by students and non-permanent residents," he wrote. 

"Even worse, the gap is growing with every day that passes without meaningful action."