By Robin Brunet
BC’s construction industry is undeniably a powerhouse: it’s the province’s number one employer (over 218,000 people), and it accounts for 10.3 percent or $27 billion of the GDP.
Better still, intense demand has resulted in major projects currently underway at an estimated value of $157 billion—an increase of 16 percent over 2022 and 109 percent over the past five years.
But the very same organization that crunched these numbers—the BC Construction Association (BCCA)—is also concerned about the pressures to meet this demand, such as interest rates, rising wages, and high material costs.
With these headwinds in mind, BCCA president Chris Atchison says, “We can’t afford to lose tradespeople or journeypersons.” Nonetheless, from Q1 2023 to the second quarter, BC’s construction employment base diminished by 14,500 workers, the worst performance of any Canadian province.
Jeannine Martin, president of the Vancouver Construction Association, echoes Atchison’s sentiments. “Adding to the labour shortage and critical need for affordable housing in our jurisdiction are permitting delays,” she says. “Plus, every municipality has its own rules, so there’s no consistency.”
That’s the bad news. The good news moving into 2024 is that bureaucrats and other parties seems to have woken up to the need for systematic change. “In the Township of Langley, for example, the mayor speaks highly of the city’s ability to cut red tape and approve single-family developments in the space of a week,” Martin says. “Maybe this fast tracking will spread to multi-family residential. Also, pilots for the digitization of approvals are underway in several municipalities, with the goal of bringing consistency to the process. The benefits of such initiatives could be substantial.”
Atchison cites other elements crucial to the industry’s success moving forward. These include the need for the provincial government to mirror other provinces and the federal government in enacting prompt payment legislation, the lack of which is causing an estimated $4 billion due to risk premiums, interest charges, and legal fees, as well as the continuation of programs such as the BCCA Apprenticeship Services project.
More good news: BC is awash with a huge variety of work, including the $16 billion Site C hydroelectric dam (which employed 4,856 people in 2023, according to BC Hydro) and the early stages of the $6.8 billion Woodfibre LNG project near Squamish. “There’s also a record number of hospitals and schools,” Atchison says. “The Okanagan is experiencing substantial multi-unit residential construction, and Vancouver Island is buzzing with projects.”
“Our member firms are doing very well thanks to $61 billion in proposed work upcoming.” Martin adds. “With projects such as the $3.5 billion terminal expansion for the Port of Vancouver and, recently completed, The Stack—which is Canada’s first zero carbon commercial high rise tower—we’ve been super-busy.”
Different project delivery approaches increasingly being considered means that contractors in the future may not need to have to lose in order for owners to win.
“So yes, we’re experiencing headwinds, but there’s also lots of cause to be optimistic,” Martin says. ■
