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Canadian Construction Association president Rodrigue Gilbert says the CCA welcomes the federal government’s long-awaited announcement that it intends to move on a National Infrastructure Assessment (NIA) even though the association finds flaws in the initiative.

Gilbert said it’s “good news” the NIA will finally be launched, as a step towards taking politics out of long-term infrastructure planning. But he said it is a concern that the newly appointed Canadian Infrastructure Council failed to include direct construction sector representation.

In addition, he said, the NIA’s mandate, with its focus on housing-enabling infrastructure, falls short.

“It’s missing all that trade infrastructure, that’s a big part of it, and all that civil side, like the roads and bridges,” Gilbert said. “You cannot build all these houses without it. So that part, I think, is missing, and it’s a bit disappointing.”

Where’s the construction representation?

Among the 11 members of the new council, Gilbert noted, there is no construction practitioner.

“For us, that’s disappointing. I’m not questioning who’s on the committee. I just feel that the real practitioner side of it is not represented.”

The council will “hit a wall” at one point, he said, and realize it can’t collect the data the NIA needs and determine the actual state of infrastructure without construction representatives.

The CCA has already booked a meeting where the perceived oversights will be discussed, Gilbert said.

“I think there’s something we can work out.”

The NIA was unveiled Dec. 3 by Minister of Housing, Infrastructure and Communities Sean Fraser, four years after it was initially proposed.

The need for an NIA had been raised by the CCA during its annual Hill Day of advocacy on Parliament Hill Nov. 20.

Gilbert said the 100 CCA members who descended on Ottawa to address CCA priorities with parliamentarians of all stripes were intent to make good use of what may be their last chance to lobby the politicians before the next federal election.

Gilbert stated, “We’re moving towards a federal election. So not only are our members excited to meet with MPs and ministers and staffers, they’re also really excited to meet with us, because we are representing a big part of the population, and we all vote.

“So it’s a good opportunity for the industry to raise our key issues like infrastructure, workforce, procurement, but also it’s a very good opportunity for our members to connect with their local MPs.”

Besides the need for an NIA, CCA advocates pressed the point that long-term planning on infrastructure is imperative, Gilbert said. And the context, he said, is that the minority Justin Trudeau government is in a precarious position in the legislature and sits at least 20 points behind the Conservative Party led by Pierre Poilievre in the polls.

Possible government in waiting

“We get the chance to speak with people that maybe in six months from now will be in cabinet,” said Gilbert. “If they are about to take decisions about the long-term planning and building infrastructure that we need, we have to do it the right way.”

And even though it was not among the top three priorities on Hill Day, Gilbert admitted the spectre of dealing with a new Donald Trump government in the U.S. in January was another key topic of concern. Trump’s threat to impose high tariffs on Canadian imports is a serious issue, Gilbert said.

“That’s going to hurt the entire Canadian economy. Not only that, it’s going to hurt the American economy too, because Canadians will be part of their solution,” said Gilbert.

“But I can tell you that at CCA, we spend a lot of time following it. We’re making calls to the U.S. We’re trying to understand what it’s going to mean for our members, and that’s really something we’ll be engaged with.”

The other two issues on the CCA’s agenda on Hill Day were ensuring governments take steps to build Canada’s construction workforce, and reforming federal procurement.

The workforce issue is multi-faceted, Gilbert said, with immigration an important component. Recent federal reforms on multiple fronts are not helpful.

“Flip flopping on immigration, more or less, it’s not a solution. We need long-term planning,” said Gilbert, adding the points system does not meet the requirements of the construction sector.

“It’s very difficult to say that the federal government is a good partner on the workforce issue.”