The proposal has set up a clash between economic development goals and labour interests in the province, where union influence runs deep and construction accounted for 6.6 per cent of economic output as of 2022, according to Statistics Canada.
The Canadian Housing and Mortgage Corporation, meanwhile, estimates the province will need to build more than 1.1 million additional housing units by 2030 in order for housing to be as affordable to average income households as it was in 2004, the corporation said in a September report. Rinfret agrees more versatility between trades for qualified workers would be a boon for the industry. “I totally agree that decompartmentalizing certain trades would enable us to gain in productivity,” she said in an email. “With additional training or experience, a single person who could, for example, do carpentry and plastering work could … be part of the solution to the labour shortage.”U.S.
However, Boulet’s proposal has drawn criticism from CSD Construction, a union that represents almost 25,000 Quebec construction workers. It argues greater versatility between trades would place an unfair burden on labourers while threatening work site safety and construction quality.“Versatility should never be at the expense of expertise,” union president Carl Dufour said in a statement this month.