As inflation has kept the costs of living high across Ontario, hiring and retaining skilled workers in the trades has become even more challenging for construction companies. A number of companies in Mississauga and Brampton have shared how they are suffering from the skilled labour shortage in the province:
- Rami Saidi, owner of Mississauga based Ecocor, a company that offers custom home builds for clients in the Greater Toronto Area, says finding the right person for their day-to-day operations is becoming harder.
"You have to go through a lot. You have to do a lot of interviews. You get a lot of people that on their resumes, they show themselves best out of the best, but when you try them out, they are not good and unfortunately, you have to let them go. It's annoying because when you are trying to find non-skilled trades, like general labour for cleaning purposes, there are so many out there, but they either rely on the government most of the time or want to get paid cash or want to be paid like $30 or $40 an hour and it's not feasible."
Owner of Mississauga based Ecocor | Rami Saidi
Saidi stated that as the cost of living in the GTA rises, so do workers' monetary demands. With spikes in interest rates, the construction market in Ontario has slowed down, forcing many companies to lay off workers.
BramptonGuardian reports that on January 25th, the Bank of Canada hiked the interest rates from the previous cycle of 4.25 to 4.5 per cent.
For Saiki, there are not many options available regarding those challenges, except to cut overhead costs as much as possible. He also recommends staying price competitive and gaining clients' trust by delivering quality service.
- Sandeep Singh, owner of Blessing Homes Canada, a small construction company based in Brampton, has painful stories regarding retaining skilled workers in his company.
Based on his experience, such workers generally prefer to either work for larger corporations with higher pay rates or work for themselves as subcontractors.
"There are so many challenges. From my experience, skilled workers do not want to work in small companies like mine. Generally, the skilled ones are more interested to work as self-employed people. This is a major problem. From time to time, it happens that the employees are leaving on a one-or two-week notice, and in such an industry, it's hard to hire a new skilled worker in a short period of time. So then our projects' timelines are pushed back."
Owner of Blessing Homes Canada | Sandeep Singh
Singh added even when he hires college students and trains them in various trades, they leave his company once they finish their terms and have received enough training.
One solution would be to bring skilled workers from abroad. However, that is not effective in the long run, as Singh says by the time these employees get their permanent residency, they often leave the company.
With all these challenges, Singh doubts about staying competitive in such an industry. He has already started thinking about shifting his focus from home renovations to home building, since he feels there isn't as much competition in the field now.
- Raj Dhesi is the owner of Royal Star Builders, a Brampton-based construction company specializing in custom homes. He says hiring skilled workers in certain trades is expensive.
Dhesi said finishing a project on time is the biggest concern for his company, as high-skilled workers are taking various contracts simultaneously since they are in high demand. With skilled workers in the trades remaining in high demand due to not many of them being available, the Province of Ontario has taken a series of steps to help to some extent.
Immigration, Refugees and Citizenship of Canada (IRCC) recently announced the government has doubled its previous scope and will grant 1,000 out-of-status construction workers in GTA permanent residency.
Launched in 2019, the program has since offered more than 450 such workers with permanent residency, according to the IRCC.
The Ontario government has also committed an additional $50 million dollars for IRCC in 2022-23 to speed up the processing of the applications and allow skilled newcomers to fill "critical labour gaps."
Canada has issued more than 645,000 work permits between January and October 2022. That is nearly four times more than the 163,000 issued over the same period in 2021 according to the IRCC.
Business Council of Canada states that employers look to the immigration system to help meet a variety of business needs, from enabling enterprise growth to increasing the diversity of their workforces. Above all, immigration helps them fill positions that would otherwise stay vacant. Of the employers that make direct use of the immigration system, four out of five say they do so to address labour shortages.
Employers report that newcomers make important contributions to their businesses, adding that the immigrants they hire tend to possess strong technical as well as human skills.
Nevertheless, some immigrants face challenges adapting to their new environment. Employers recognize these challenges and say they are committed to helping newcomers succeed. This includes providing language and cultural training, and helping foreign-trained staff obtain recognition of their credentials.
See DataBid Blog titled Construction Labor Shortages Causing Cancelled Projects
