Aftab Ahmed on Canada's Labour Shortages in the Construction Industry | Policy Options
October 7, 2024 |聽Alumnus Aftab Ahmed MPP'23 wrote an聽article on 聽in Canada on . "The construction industry聽faces聽a twin problem: labour shortages and an impending wave of retirements. This is not a simple issue with an easy fix. It negatively affects four sequential components of the housing supply chain: workforce availability, the recruitment and retention of skilled labour, the development of housing projects, and the timely delivery of completed homes," write Aftab.聽
Public pressure聽to tackle what many have deemed unrestrained immigration numbers has become a focus in today鈥檚 hostile and often cutthroat political discourse. Leveraging the temporary foreign worker channel聽no longer聽seems to be on the immediate agenda, with Ottawa cutting back on its preference for these workers due to concerns about聽exploitation聽within the construction industry, combined with political realities. At worst, these realities reflect a reactionary, knee-jerk response where newcomers are politically聽scapegoated聽to leverage financial anxiety, as has been done throughout history without much evidence, and at best, they represent a necessary pulse check on federal immigration policy.
