P.E.I. vacancy rate target out of reach without bigger workforce, says construction industry

The Construction Association of P.E.I. says the provincial housing minister's goal for the Island's vacancy rate to go from less than one per cent to four per cent within two years won't be achievable without the addition of more skilled tradespeople.

The Island's apartment vacancy rate dropped to 0.8 per cent in October 2022, according to Canada Mortgage and Housing Corporation. Last week, P.E.I. Housing Minister Matthew MacKay said he's confident that thanks to new initiatives the province is planning, the addition of more housing units will push that rate to four per cent within two years.

The province has offered developers loans with a two-per-cent interest rate, and is working to create hundreds of new apartments using modular buildings that can be put together quickly.

But a major voice in the local construction industry says those programs alone aren't enough.

"Money is never going to fix this problem," said Sam Sanderson, general manager of the Construction Association of P.E.I.

"It's going to be people, people, people. We need more people to build, and we can only build so fast… with the people we have to build with."

At the centre of P.E.I.'s housing crisis are a population growing faster than planned and a construction industry that can't keep up with the need for new housing.

The Island's construction workforce has grown over the last five years, from 5,600 in 2017 to 7,200 in 2022, according to Statistics Canada.

But the demand has grown too, and Sanderson said the industry is going to be losing workers over the next five years.

"We're looking at one in four people in the industry that are going to retire by 2028-2029. Those are huge numbers.... The only way we're going to increase the capacity of industry to any magnitude is to bring in the potential of 1,500 to 2,000 skilled people." he said.

"If we keep on the trajectory we're on now, with the demand of industry, it's going to be tough," he said, calling the vacancy rate target of four per cent within two years "a pretty tough challenge."

'No one pathway'

P.E.I.'s director of workforce development, Mary Hunter, said the province is partnering with groups like the construction association, the P.E.I. Women's Network and Holland College to promote careers in the industry and expand training programs.

"There's no one pathway," she told CBC. "We're trying to explore multiple pathways to really increase the number of tradespeople in the workforce."

And she said there are efforts to recruit people from other provinces and countries.

"We also need to attract people that have experience within the trades to come here and set up a business in the province," she said. "Whether that's our repatriation efforts or others, it's continuing to keep up with the demand, but also be innovative with our partnerships."

'That chicken and egg thing'

Sanderson said more needs to be done "within our education system to let our youth know about the opportunities, but we also need to do more on our immigration side. We need to attract those skilled tradespeople."

But there's another issue worrying Sanderson, one he calls "that chicken and egg thing."

"We need people to build, no doubt about that. But we also need places for those people to live when they come here."