New BuildForce Canada report underscores need for coordinated action to build residential construction workforce

JULY 20, 2026 – OTTAWA, ON – BuildForce Canada’s newly released 2026–2035 Construction and Maintenance Looking Forward: An Assessment of Canada’s Residential Labour Markets report highlights the changing workforce demands facing Canada’s residential construction sector. The outlook reinforces the need for governments to work with industry to build a stronger, more flexible workforce capable of meeting the country’s housing supply targets.

The report’s findings illustrate the long-term workforce challenge ahead for the residential construction sector. Although residential construction employment rose slightly by 2% in 2025, approximately 21% of the workforce – or 135,000 residential construction workers – is projected to retire by 2035, departing the sector with decades of work experience. BuildForce projects a shortfall of new entrants over that same period.

The federal government has stated that Canada must build approximately 480,000 homes per year over the next decade to close the housing supply gap and help restore affordability – nearly double the number of starts the country builds now. At the same time, the existing housing stock must be maintained through renovations and repair.

“The industry cannot double housing output without a strong economic and policy environment conducive to allowing Canadians to enter the housing market, and without a sufficient supply of workers to build and renovate homes. BuildForce Canada’s outlook underscores the importance of taking a long-term, coordinated approach to workforce development to ensure the industry has the capacity to respond to housing demand fluctuations,” said Frank Lohmann, Interim CEO of the Canadian Home Builders’ Association (CHBA).

CHBA continues to call on the federal government to take a comprehensive approach to addressing the challenges of the residential construction workforce. This includes supporting a coordinated, industry-led approach that aligns workforce development with the real needs of the residential construction sector.

As part of this, CHBA continues to recommend that the federal government take action to attract more youth, women, Indigenous Peoples, newcomers, and underrepresented groups to the residential construction industry, especially in on-site roles. It is also necessary to recognize and support pathways outside of traditional apprenticeship which, while important for some residential construction roles, do not well support a wide range of occupations in the sector. Expanding access to competency-based training, alternative work-integrated learning opportunities, and other flexible pathways will help more people enter the industry and develop their skills over time, while fulfilling industry needs.

CHBA also maintains that Canada’s immigration system must be updated to better reflect the workforce realities and requirements of the residential construction industry. CHBA continues to call for enhanced category-based selection under Express Entry to support the specific labour needs of residential construction, including bringing in workers in TEERs 4 and 5 occupations such as installers, general labourers, and factory-built construction workers.

Finally, to increase housing output and alleviate strain on the residential construction workforce, more must be done to support greater industry adoption of factory-built methods (like modular and panelized construction), which offer opportunities to boost productivity. CHBA continues to call on the federal government to implement recommendations from CHBA’s Sector Transition Strategy, including offering strategic financing to de-risk investments in modular factories, introducing investment tax credits to accelerate innovation, addressing regulatory barriers, and more.

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ABOUT THE CANADIAN HOME BUILDERS’ ASSOCIATION

The Canadian Home Builders’ Association (CHBA) is the voice of the residential construction industry in Canada, representing some 8,500 member firms across the country. Our membership spans new home builders, renovators, developers, trade contractors, building material manufacturers and suppliers, lenders, and other professionals in the housing sector.