A positive outlook for the construction industry in the years ahead.
Ontario contractors are expecting 2024 to be a busy year, with an abundance of current work and more projects on the horizon, according to findings from the annual Ontario Construction Secretariat Contractor Survey.
More than two-thirds of the contractors surveyed, or 66 per cent, say they're feeling positive about the coming year and among unionized workplaces the number is even stronger at 71 per cent.
There does remain concern about rising costs for materials and labour, but Chief Executive Officer of the OCS Robert Bronk says there has been a noted improvement in the supply chain.
He says it's good news for the Windsor region, and provincewide, that the chain has been opening up with many of the bottleneck issues from the pandemic cleared.
"We do a contractor survey every year and we've noticed that in interviewing 500 contractors across Ontario, they've all said that's lightened up. They've either come up with alternative suppliers or they're stockpiling a little more. But they've come to resolve that issue, and things are opening up in a big way."
Bronk says there is a massive project pipeline in Ontario that's fuelling positivity about business prospects, and that's especially true in Windsor.
From the new hospital to the Gordie Howe International Bridge, Bonk believes there's a lot to be excited about.
"All the spin off commercial projects that are coming off the Gordie Howe Bridge, there's the outlet malls and the road construction. There's going to be restaurants and all those kinds of things that come off of that bridge. There's also the natural gas plant Crown Royal has announced, so there's a lot of commercial projects that are in the pipeline."
He says that's because permit values for Windsor have soared since the pandemic, which usually predict what's happening down the pipeline.
"It can take two to three to four years between getting a permit and actually breaking ground and starting the construction. Permit values in Windsor have just skyrocketed, I know last year at one point it was 176 per cent higher than the previous year. It's really, really, booming in your area."
Building trade unions and their contractor partners continue to be leaders in apprenticeship training as well, with 78 per cent of union contractors reporting having apprentices as part of their team, compared to only half of non-union contractors.
There's also a strong support for the adoption of new technologies, with 83 per cent of those surveyed feel adopting new tech is important to the future of their business.