If Canada Wants to Build, She Needs Human Infrastructure

Sep 16

2 min read

In Prime Minister Mark Carney’s speech at the Canadian Investment Summit, one of the main takeaways was unsurprising. It was something he and his administration have been working on for over a year.

The Canadian government plans to catalyze over $1 trillion in investment over the next 5 years, and the 27 projects that have been referred to the Major Projects Office represent about $500 billion in private investment. Long story short: Canada is building, and she is building fast. And while we are ready for the physical infrastructure, now we must consider the human infrastructure required to build it. Affordable housing, regional airports (and infrastructure at international ones), local transportation infrastructure, national trade corridors and notably, for the first time in Canada’s history, we are opening Arctic Canada to trade and trade routes to better connect us with the rest of the world. Pipelines. Clean Energy. Mining natural resources. For example, the Ontario Ring of Fire (the vast, mineral-rich location in the remote James Bay Lowlands of Northern Ontario) passed its first federal impact assessment for the main road accessing the area, and construction to build access to the mines has now begun. The ROF has been a heavily discussed topic of contention for almost two decades, so the progress from initial impact assessments to shovels in the ground is an enormous leap forward for the Canadian economy (understatement of a lifetime). The Ontario Ring of Fire is anticipated to support 70,000 jobs over 30 years (not specifically tradespeople). That does not even begin to look at the job numbers and necessary humans needed to actually mine the minerals. We’re only talking about creating the access so far. Canada’s future goals are ambitious, but it is the execution of these plans that will really tell the tale of our commitment, strength, determination, and pride. Without the workers, we cannot execute these projects. It is simply untenable. There are not enough existing tradespeople to be able to actually build the projects. That’s a pretty big fucking problem. So, how do we solve it? We don’t just look for new tradespeople. We invest in maintaining our existing workforce. Embracing neurodiversity in the Canadian construction industry is an opportunity to get the most productivity out of the workers we already have. Higher retention rates within the industry and individual employers, and research from Deloitte shows potential productivity increases of up to 30%.

We will have more construction workers retire than voluntarily leave the industry early. International construction research suggests as many as one in four workers identify as neurodivergent. Canada does not yet have equivalent baseline data, which is itself a problem. Consideration for that 25% of construction workers who identify as neurodivergent (not including unaware or unsuspecting) is not just a nice-to-do. It is a way for Canadians to get the most from their tax dollars as we continue down this path of nation-building projects. And project value has never been more critical. It is time to examine and understand the impact of neurodivergence on apprenticeship completion rates and industry retention, and to translate that understanding into actionable steps we can take to make the industry better, for everyone. Canada depends on it.