Read part one of a Future of Work and Learning mini-series looking at the state of the workforce across key western Canadian industries. This first issue on Canada’s construction sector explores where demand is expected in the next year, where supply comes from and where skill and labour gaps exist.
Workforce Demand: Critical infrastructure
In 2026, Canada’s construction sector faces “rising infrastructure demand, rapid technological adoption, generational labour turnover and macro-economic uncertainty.”
Ensuring the sector has the workforce to address these challenges over the next year and into the future is front of mind for many. Even before these issues emerged, the sector was facing talent shortages.
BuildForce projections published in April 2025 for 2025-2034 show that western Canadian provinces would need to attract workers from other occupations or provinces to meet forecast demand. The total forecast vacant positions that will have to be filled by attracting workers from outside the province or from other industries for each western province by 2034 is:
- British Columbia: 22,700
- Alberta: 15,400
- Saskatchewan: 1,400
- Manitoba: 7,900
Over the past five years, construction permits for residential projects outnumber those for industrial/commercial/institutional (ICI) projects across Western Canada, particularly in British Columbia and Alberta. However, ICI projects are typically more complex as they are costlier, larger, take longer to build and have more stringent regulatory requirements compared to residential construction.
Residential construction teams are typically “smaller and more versatile,” while ICI projects consist of “larger teams with more specialized roles and skillsets.” As the federal Major Projects Office ramps up its work to spur projects in the national interest, and provinces and municipalities look to develop their own projects, it will not be “a shortage of money or projects holding back activity, but the lack of available workers.”
To address this shortage of workers, a more deliberate strategy is needed to facilitate transitions between residential and commercial construction, recognizing where skills are transferable and where additional training is required. Bridging this divide could improve labour flexibility, stabilize employment cycles and align workforce capacity with the evolving project demands.
Construction labour supply
Even as the sector needs to attract more workers, the most recent Statistics Canada Labour Force Survey from January 2026 shows that the share of workers entering the construction sector across western provinces is trending downwards. The workforce is also not evenly distributed across provinces so some regions may have more unmet demand in future than others.
Source: CWF Calculations, Statistics Canada Table 14-10-0355-01
Out of western Canadian census metropolitan areas (CMAs) in 2025, the Edmonton CMA workforce ranks second for the total number of people working in construction and overall share of the working population employed in construction.
Within B.C., CMAs in the Okanagan-Thompson region (Kamloops and Kelowna) and Mainland Southwest (Chilliwack and Abbotsford) have the largest percentage of their employed workforce in the construction sector, while the Vancouver CMA has the largest total number of people employed in construction.
Saskatchewan and Manitoba CMAs have smaller construction workforces, but construction also makes up a relatively smaller proportion of the employed workforce.
Source: CWF calculations, Statistics Canada Table 14-10-0468-01
The latest data, available for 2024, show that most construction employment in B.C. and Alberta is in residential construction or engineering, while Saskatchewan has a fairly even distribution across all types.
Manitoba’s sector has less of a concentration in engineering. Ontario has the largest percentage of the workforce in residential construction.
Source: BuildForce Canada Construction and Maintenance Looking Forward provincial report summaries 2025-2034
Skills gaps and the digital transition
Transitioning workers from residential to commercial or vice versa requires identifying transferable foundational skills, addressing technical certification gaps and creating clear upskilling pathways that support mobility across project types.
While many foundational skills such as safety compliance, blueprint reading, equipment operation and project co-ordination are transferable across the sector, commercial projects increasingly demand more specialized technical competencies, including digital tools, advanced materials knowledge and complex systems integration.
Formal mobility agreements, such as the Ontario-Quebec Construction Mobility Agreement, can be established in the construction industry when regulatory barriers exist. This suggests that structured approaches similar to these agreements could support skill transfer between residential and commercial project types.
Addressing the growing construction labour shortage requires targeted upskilling rather than complete retraining.
In B.C., SkilledTradesBC has developed a series of micro-credentials for the construction trades in partnership with a post-secondary institution.
In Alberta, micro-credentials have also caught on, with the Alberta Roadbuilders Association partnering with the Northern Alberta Institute of Technology (NAIT) to deliver a series of micro-credentials that would lead to the granting of the Roadbuilders Certificate. These programs effectively bridge foundational trade skills with the emerging digital and technical demands of the industry.
In Saskatchewan, the Women in Trades and Technology program encourages women to take advantage of opportunities in traditionally male-centric occupations, opening up a largely untapped group of workers.
To attract new workers to the sector, the Manitoba Construction Sector Council and Northpine Foundation partnered to deliver free training for individuals who receive Employment and Income Assistance to provide foundational skills to enter the sector.
Programs like these are examples of how the industry can support those who need to build foundational skills, which can ladder into more technical certifications, and those who are ready to expand their technical knowledge. Together, these types of programs can help supply a flexible and skilled workforce that can adapt to shifting demand.
This edition of The Future of Work and Learning was compiled and written by Stephany Laverty, a Senior Policy Analyst, and Margi Pandya, a Policy Analyst, at the Canada West Foundation.
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