Canada is growing rapidly — and so are its housing needs.

In turn, these pressures are testing the construction industry, which finds itself dealing with a mounting labour shortage.

There are tens of thousands of unfilled construction jobs across the country — including up to 20,000 open positions in Ontario alone — that the Labourers’ International Union of North America (LiUNA) says it could fill, if only it could find the workers.

The open positions in such sectors as residential and high-rise construction include labourers, bricklayers, cement finishers and people doing trim and tile work.

“That’s just one labour union,” said Victoria Mancinelli, the public relations director for LiUNA in Central and Eastern Canada, describing the deficit as a partial snapshot of the broader construction labour crunch.

The industry is also facing a looming wave of retirements that will see roughly 20 per cent of Canada’s construction workers retire within 10 years.

“This is not something that is unique to construction,” said Bill Ferreira, executive director of industry group BuildForce Canada, referring to the labour supply challenges that surround Canada’s aging workforce.

To keep construction projects moving forward, Canada will need people to build them — which is why both the industry and various levels of government are paying close attention to how many workers will be available to work on job sites now and in the future.

Keep reading on cbc.ca

• 
•