Construction demands in Ontario are expected to stay elevated for the next five years.
BuildForce Canada published their 2024-2033 Construction and Maintenance Looking Forward report for Ontario on Tuesday, which calls for strong growth across both the residential and non-residential sectors.
The residential sector has seen a slight decrease due to pressure from rising interest rates, however the non-residential sector is projected to see strong growth until at least 2029 due to major projects in the province such as transit improvements in the Greater Toronto Area, mining activity in the North, and electric vehicle manufacturing and automotive retooling projects in the Southwest.
BuildForce has split Ontario into five regions including Central, Eastern, Greater Toronto Area, Northern, and Southwestern, which each feature discrete labour market conditions .
Southwestern Ontario's residential sector activity declined in 2023, but growth is projected to resume again between 2025 and 2028. The non-residential sector has seen steady growth since 2016 with ongoing work on key projects such as the Gordie Howe International Bridge, and work in the automotive sector.
Speaking on AM800's The Shift, Bill Ferreira, Executive Director of BuildForce Canada, says there has been a lot of provincial investments.
"We continue to see that investment going into all five regions of the province, and that is certainly driving construction demand, and has been driving construction demands since coming out of the pandemic in 2021."
He says there is a pretty close mix of public investments and private investments in construction.
"I'd say it's probably around a 60 per cent mix in favour of the public sector. A lot of the investments that are going into non-residential construction right now are primarily healthcare, but road works as well. And a lot of that is driven by the population growth that we've seen in the province."
Ferreira says they continue to track the investments in the local region.
"Any of these investments are already well known - the Stellantis investment is a significant investment, we're also tracking the Windsor Acute Care Hospital which will begin around 2027. And there are a number of retooling projects going on right now in Windsor."
The construction industry remains focused on building a more diverse and inclusive labour force. Efforts are ongoing to enhance the recruitment of individuals from groups traditionally under-represented in the province's construction labour force, such as women, Indigenous People, and newcomers to Canada.
Increasing the participation rate of women, Indigenous People, and new Canadians will help Ontario's construction industry address much of its future labour force needs.
BuildForce Canada is a national industry-led organization that represents all sectors of Canada's construction industry.