The concrete truck sputters out the last of its contents as it fills the backyard patio of a senior couple in Calgary. Emad Sleiman lets out a laugh that’s a mixture of satisfaction and relief. 

“We’ve got just enough.” 

Sleiman’s local business has been overrun with project requests this year, but his crew at Apex Concrete and Landscaping is having a major issue: finding enough concrete. 

Apex used to schedule concrete trucks based on the projects they had coming up. Now, they’re booking any available concrete and trying to squeeze clients into those days. Some jobs are being pushed back weeks as they wait for materials and other Calgary companies, like Omega 2000 Cribbing Inc., are turning clients away. 

“I don’t know how other contractors are going to survive. I don’t know how the suppliers [are] going to keep providing,” said Sleiman.

The construction sector is having a boom year, as consumers and companies pour more dollars into building infrastructure. But cement, a key ingredient in making concrete, has become scarce, and the shortage — caused by a confluence of increased demand, labour shortages, inflation and issues at major plants — is creating serious problems for the construction industry across the country. 

One undisputed cause of the shortage is an increase in demand. “This is a good-weather summer. And people have put off building for a while, and the money has come from governments.… And now everybody wants to do everything all at once,” Michael Veall, a professor of economics at McMaster University, said. 

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