Being deemed an essential service hasn’t immunized Alberta’s commercial construction sector from the effects of COVID-19.

While existing building sites remain busy, few new projects are breaking ground over supply chain woes and economic uncertainty.

“When the province deemed [construction] an essential service, there was the expectation that schedules wouldn’t be affected,” says Frederick Vine, chair of the Alberta Construction Association.

“It’s quite a discussion to be having with the client that although construction wasn’t shut down, we were still impacted.”

Unlike Ontario or Quebec, where, initially, commercial construction was halted by provincial governments, Alberta allowed work to continue without interruption as long as Alberta Health requirements could be met.

But protecting employees from the spread of COVID-19 on constructions sites takes time.

“We have sign-in requirements for tracing,” Mr. Vine says. “Workers can’t congregate at the front gate. They have to be spaced out and come in spaced apart. Work has to be occurring with social distancing in mind.”

Global and national supply chain disruptions have been another delay point.

“Structural steel comes from Quebec and [that] industry was shut down completely,” Mr. Vine says. Some sites could be ordering doors from Washington State and it shut down early in the pandemic, he added.

Mr. Vine says sorting out where everything was coming from was challenging and expects there will be continuing disruption in supply chains out of the United States as COVID-19 cases continue to rise there.

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