| A Calgary homebuilder says housing prices in Calgary will skyrocket if Canada doesn’t change its immigration policies to allow more skilled trades workers to fill an already restrictive labour shortage.
But a new poll says a majority of Canadians think too many immigrants are already allowed into the country, despite a slowing growth rate.
Avi Amir, president of Homes by Avi, says Calgary is already feeling the crunch of a booming housing market and a shortage of trades workers needed to build the houses. He adds that the provincial government has started to recognize the shortage and is working to deal with it, but the real problem lies with national immigration rules set by the federal government.
"The trades are aging and there has been hardly any new people coming in the past 30 years," Amir says. "In the short term, immigration is the only way to solve this problem. In Eastern Europe, there are tradespeople just looking for work.
"I’m not talking about unskilled labour here, I’m talking about tradespeople…. There’s a real discrimination against people who don’t have a university degree or a master’s degree."
Amir says programs to encourage young people to enter the trades won’t hit the housing market for years, and without more workers, the cost of building houses – especially in the booming Calgary market – will continue to rise.
The issue was highlighted in the 2001 Canadian census results released earlier this month, which show that the past five years were one of Canada’s slowest periods of growth ever. At the same time, the birth rate is declining and the population is aging.
But a new Ledger Marketing survey says Canadians are still wary of increasing immigration. The poll, conducted in early February, indicates that 54 per cent of Canadians think Canada allows too many immigrants into the country.
Amir says the federal government needs to realize the economic health of his industry, and many others, depends on new workers.
"The whole industry was based on immigration," Amir says. "Who were the (original) homebuilders in Canada? People from Germany. Who were the bricklayers in Toronto? People from Italy.
"We stopped that flow, and now we need to bring these people back. They are good people, hard-working people and we need them." |
