Construction industry concerned about federal budget

With each blow of the hammer, with every pipe in the ground, the federal government gets a bit closer to reaching its housing targets. But what if there’s no one left to do the work? The targets that the governments at every level are setting for us are are almost unattainable without having all these tools that we can use. The federal government unveiling a budget Tuesday built on building homes, but right now 20% of construction and trade workers are 55 or over. Expected to retire in the next few years. Adding to a workforce that dropped by 7% in the past five years, meaning the industry is expected to be 6600 workers short by 2033, the challenge is we don’t have enough people coming in to to replace them. Canada, and in particular BC, has seen massive population growth. But of the 460,000 new immigrants to Canada in the last year, just 9000 worked in the trades, A measly 2%. A call on Ottawa to target these workers when welcoming people to Canada. That is the fundamental purpose of the federal government controlling immigration. And unfortunately, they haven’t been doing a very good job. It does take time to build a home, and the challenge is significant. But I think it’s also important to recognize we have a lot of things in our favor. Right homes are being built already. Federal NDP Leader Jagmeet Singh says the federal government should be ensuring immigrants with skill training. Are arriving here. Some union halls are saying we can actually have those workers come through the union and we can ensure they have the work in the trades. We can ensure that their work is being compensated appropriately and that it’s keeping the level of employment and the level of salaries and wages up for everybody. So that might be something we look at as a solution, and even more options will be needed if there’s any hope to get to the goal of building 3.87 million homes by 2031. Richard Osman, Global News Vic.