CCA’s Rebuild Canada’s Workforce NOW campaign unveiled

OTTAWA — With Canada facing a severe labour shortage, there is an urgent need for workers in the construction industry and the Canadian Construction Association (CCA) has put out an industry call to action: Rebuild Canada’s workforce NOW.

The campaign by the Construction Action Network urges constituents to write a letter to their MPs asking them to voice support for building up the construction workforce.

The federal government has a growth plan which includes repairing, maintaining and retrofitting aging infrastructure and building for future climate resilience, indicates a release, adding retirements and recruitment challenges will be a heavy blow to future economic growth if steps aren’t taken to deal with the shortage.

Industry representatives are meeting with parliamentarians for CCA’s Hill Day on Nov. 15 to urge the federal government to:

• modernize Canada’s immigration policy and point system to better recognize tradespeople and construction labourers;
• work with the provinces to ensure skills matching is properly funded and supported; and
• update the Temporary Foreign Worker program to allow seamless access for the construction industry.

“Canada is facing its most severe labour shortage in over 50 years – nearly one million jobs are unfilled,” said Mary Van Buren, CCA president, in a statement. “The situation is especially acute for the construction sector – we have over 81,000 openings now. This also means the essential infrastructure projects that 38 million Canadians rely on every day risk being cancelled or delayed.”

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