Immigration, federal grants, investment in infrastructure and bolstering the country’s energy sector are among the priorities on the Calgary Construction Association’s wish list for the next federal government.
Increasing the immigration of skilled trade workers is crucial to filling a high volume of vacancies in the industry, according to the association’s president and CEO Bill Black.
Black estimates the sector is currently short about 6,800 positions. When the prospect of retirements is accounted for the number climbs to more than 40,000, he said, attributing the gap to a worsened public view of working in the industry.
“We need to rebrand construction to Canadians,” he said.
“Canadians need to frankly realize if they’re not willing to engage in the industry as a career, we are going to have to look for people elsewhere, because we still need roads, we still need bridges, we still need hospitals, schools and housing, and we will continue to need that built, maintained, operated by workers.”
Immigration essential to fill construction jobs
Bill Black Calgary Construction Association President and CEO Bill Black speaks at an event in January 2025. Darren Makowichuk/Postmedia
Black criticized the government’s decision to slash the provincial nomination program, which targets immigrants based on their profession, by about half this year, leaving provinces including Alberta with fewer tools to fill positions.
Canada’s immigration policy has been under scrutiny after the country’s population in 2023 grew by 1.27 million people, or 3.2 per cent, with immigration accounting for more than 800,000 individuals. It took the number of temporary residents to 2.7 million — almost double from two years earlier.
Black stressed tailoring immigration to the region’s labour needs, while calling the current predicament a “chicken and egg situation.”
“Yes, immigration has led to a housing crisis,” he said “It’s not just immigration, though. The housing crisis has come about because we’re growing as a country, even internally. Targeted, strategic immigration does need to be part of (the solution).”
The association also wants more federal grants that companies use to train and hire inexperienced workers. Black cited the Canada-Alberta Job Grant, which contributes 60 per cent of the cost of training employees.
“When you consider that most of our industry is comprised of fairly small businesses, they don’t really have a training budget, they don’t have a lot of margin or overheads that they can fund this with,” Black said.
The federal government invested $70.8 million in job programs in Alberta, about $27 million of which flowed to the grant.
The funding for the program, along with others — such as an apprenticeship incentive grant that financially assists new workers who generally rely on employment insurance as they complete their apprenticeships — concluded in 2024 once the agreement between Ottawa and Alberta had expired.
Black rejects the notion that such programs subsidize the profits of the industry, adding companies have low margins and if they fail to survive, “the cost of everything will go up, the length of projects will extend, and our ability to even build a school and a hospital might go away.”
Federal infrastructure funding needed
“We already lived through that nightmare last summer of an aging infrastructure,” he said.
Investing in these kinds of infrastructure is mainly the city’s jurisdiction. However, Black argued that such responsibilities have over time been downloaded by Ottawa onto lower levels of government.“But (the federal government) kept all the original tax revenue,” Black said. “And then they turn around and say, ‘We now want cities to (freeze) development fees so we can build more houses.’ Well now, how does the municipality fund infrastructure and sewers and roads, etc.?”
The association is calling for an approach that values the oil and gas industry while strengthening clean energy.
“As we seek to find more responsible ways to deal with energy, there is still a demand (for oil and gas), and we are shooting ourselves in the foot as a country by refusing to allow responsible energy development to grow and allow us to be able to reach new customers,” he said, voicing his opposition to an emissions cap.
“It’s deeply concerning when blanket caps and blanket decisions are made that shut down investment and shut down economic capability.”
