The new National Infrastructure Assessment outlines urgent reforms needed in workforce development, procurement, supply chains and internal trade, signalling major implications for contractors delivering water, wastewater, transit and solid waste projects.
The Canadian Construction Association (CCA) welcomed the release of the National Infrastructure Assessment (NIA), suggesting that it’s a long-overdue validation of what contractors have been warning for years: that Canada cannot scale up housing or economic growth without first repairing and expanding the foundational infrastructure that supports communities. The report, released on November 27, highlights substantial gaps across the water, wastewater, transit and solid waste networks that underpin nearly every major construction program in the country.
CCA President Rodrigue Gilbert said the findings reinforce industry urgency around enabling infrastructure. According to the NIA, more than $126 billion in assets are in poor or very poor condition, including 11 per cent of water and wastewater systems and over 13 per cent of public transit assets. Solid waste systems are also nearing capacity.
“Housing cannot accelerate without major improvements to water and wastewater capacity, solid waste management and public transit access,” Gilbert emphasized. “These are the foundational systems that determine whether communities can grow.”
A clear roadmap – but major gaps remain
While the NIA offers a much-needed national snapshot, CCA argues the assessment does not yet provide the full framework required for timely infrastructure delivery. The report’s workforce section focuses heavily on engineering talent but fails to address Canada’s acute shortages across the construction trades – labour that is essential to the concrete, civil and heavy-infrastructure sectors. Contractors involved in water treatment plants, wastewater mains, transit expansions and other work continue to face chronic shortages of skilled formwork carpenters, equipment operators, concrete finishers and labourers.
CCA is also calling for improved data quality. The NIA is based on 2022–2023 information and does not include a mechanism for ongoing updates. Without real-time data on infrastructure conditions, capacity constraints and asset risk, governments cannot make truly evidence-based decisions about capital program sequencing, particularly in areas like water and wastewater systems, where concrete infrastructure deteriorates quickly under load and environmental stress.
In addition, CCA is urging the federal government to publish the NIA annually and to expand future assessments to include trade-enabling infrastructure such as roads, bridges, ports and rail. These systems are vital to supply chain reliability and heavily dependent on durable concrete structures and components.
Turning assessment into action
For the NIA to drive measurable improvements, Gilbert says Canada needs coherent delivery frameworks. Workforce strategies must reflect real labour-market demand across the construction trades. Procurement policies must be open and transparent to allow fair competition and avoid delays. Supply chains must be reinforced to remain resilient under new domestic-sourcing requirements. And internal trade barriers between provinces must be reduced so that materials, equipment and skilled workers can move more freely to high-priority projects.
A call to modernize Canada’s infrastructure delivery system
CCA says it looks forward to continued collaboration with the federal government to ensure the NIA evolves into meaningful reform. For contractors involved in the development of water, wastewater, transit and waste-management projects, the assessment signals a growing national recognition that infrastructure delivery must be modernized, and that without decisive action, Canada’s housing and economic goals will remain out of reach.
