During this past weekend, we all paused from our work lives and celebrated Canada Day. It is a wonderful day of recognition that we, as an entire country, celebrate Canada’s birthday. Or more succinctly, the celebration, commencing in 1867, of when Canada started its pursuit of full sovereignty and came together as a fully unified country.

Throughout this weekend, and amidst all of the family time and barbequing that was taking place, I reflected as to what Canada Day means to me and how I associate this day, and this country, with jobs in the construction sectors.

You see, I have a vastly different perspective on Canada Day than most, since I am a first generation Canadian. My parents immigrated here from Italy in the late 1960s and decided to call Canada home.

Why would anyone leave their home country and travel to a new one? There are a multitude of reasons to immigrate, but the one that far exceeds all other explanations is the sheer opportunity that the country offered.

The creation of this new country, Canada, created opportunities to grow and prosper for those who wanted to immigrate here and start a bold new life. And immigrants did flock to Canada by the hundreds of thousands, and this has inextricably shaped the way Canada has developed. Unlike our neighbours to the south, Canada has fostered the individualized retention of one’s own culture and practice over the melting pot philosophy. I believe this approach has strengthened our culture and the way that we approach everything in a very “Canadian” mindset.

But back to the original point of this article, to highlight how Canada Day equates to jobs in construction.

As highlighted, Canada was seen by most immigrants as a land of opportunity. This opportunity granted immigrants the confidence that they would find work, either in their inherent profession or something similar, when they arrived in Canada. But somewhere along the way, we as a country placed too many layers of requirements on those that wanted to immigrate which has led, in part, to the shortfall in a skilled labour force that the construction sector is facing today.

To be honest, this labour shortage has been steadily increasing for the past 20 years. What makes the situation critical now is the compounding factors of: those retiring form construction as a cohort – the departure of the baby boomers; coupled with the lack of Canadian residents that have considered or are qualified for construction specific work; construction and infrastructure projects being in abundance and qualified workers being scarce; and the fact that construction, as a career destination, has done a terrible job of self promotion.

All of these factors have culminated in our current construction labour crisis. And it is a crisis.

The issue of immigration has been hotly discussed and debated at both the federal and provincial levels as everyone scrambles to find the silver bullet that will solve everyones woes and make everything right. I will be the bearer of bad news and say that there is no “one” single solution to our current labour shortages, but that doesn’t mean that we are without any options.

Conversations aside, our respective levels of government need to work together to allow for a more transparent and more logical system of immigration for those that are qualified and skilled in construction. And the term “qualified and skill” also needs to be assessed at a practical level. If I am living in another country and know that all I need do to obtain access and be welcomed to a new country, is check off the “construction experience” box on my applications, then that’s simple from my perspective. Nonetheless, if the application now requires me to “demonstrate” a construction competency, such as skills in carpentry or masonry, now only those that truly possess these skills will be accepted.

This simple step will be able to generate the requisite immigrants that will now be offered employment and be given the opportunity to better their situations. This is not meant to limit those that are accepted into Canada, and specifically construction, but instead streamline the process for those that truly want to work in our field and provide for a “front of the line” approach to processing applications.

I believe that this one small amendment will greatly increase the caliber of application that the construction sector sees from potential immigrants and will resonate throughout the world as a possible beacon for those wanting to advance themselves in construction.

A global message that Canada is accepting of those that can demonstrate skills in construction is a powerful and positive message to receive. And one that communicates opportunity to those who want to start a bold new life, here in our country!

Should any of our members have questions regarding the OGCA’s position on immigration and the construction sector, or if you require any assistance from the OGCA, please contact me directly at giovanni@ogca.ca or via phone at 905.671.3969.