Canada’s residential construction industry will need to attract more than 1,030,000 workers—83 per cent above the status quo—in order to reach the 5.8 million housing starts required to address housing affordability, warns a new report from BuildForce Canada.

The residential employment outlook for 2024-2033 assumes starts would begin to rise this year, peak at 691,600 starts in 2029, and see a gradual de-escalation from the peak through to 2033, at which point historically normal levels of building activity would resume. The escalation in residential construction investment would be 109 per cent, which the Canadian Home Builders’ Association (CHBA) says Canada needs for its economic growth and productivity.

CHBA has long been advocating for increasing the residential construction workforce. “Reaching the Government of Canada’s target of 5.8 million new homes will require nearly doubling housing starts,” said CHBA CEO Kevin Lee. “While that increase in starts should have begun two years ago, the current economic challenges for prospective new home buyers, including higher interest rates and restrictive mortgage rules, did not result in the increase Canada needed, and substantial change is necessary on many fronts to get headed in the right direction. If buyers can’t get a mortgage to buy a home, then builders cannot build.”

Challenges facing the sector include more than 22 per cent of workers retiring over the next decade, and 40 per cent reaching past age 55. There aren’t enough workers funnelling in to make up the difference.

CHBA is calling on the federal government to address three key areas:

• Encourage more Canadians to consider a skilled trade, particularly youth, equity-deserving groups, immigrants, and those seeking a second career,
• Update the immigration system to proactively attract much-needed skilled workers in residential construction, including enhancing the express entry system to support the specific labour needs of the residential construction sector, including bringing in TEER 5 construction labourers and assistants, and
• Support increased productivity as detailed in CHBA’s Sector Transition Strategy, which lists changes and supports needed to build 5.8 million homes in the next decade that will boost supply and improve affordability.

Lee said a thorough approach to financing, policy, labour, and productivity is needed to build these homes over the next decade. ““Canada must fix the current challenges preventing Canadians from buying homes, especially by supporting first-time buyers’ need to enter the market to drive starts,” he said. “We also need substantial policy change to get houses built faster and avoid adding more costs through things like development taxes and expensive changes to codes.”