Inflation in the construction industry
“Think about it for two minutes. We need to build the equivalent of 123 Olympic stadiums, eight Baie-James or 50 Manic-Outardes… Can we achieve this without innovating? » To ask the question is to answer it. Especially when this question comes from Quebec’s chief innovator, Luc Sirois.
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Faced with the wave of construction sites that are coming in Quebec, the construction industry has no choice but to reinvent itself, as we said yesterday. That’s good, there are plenty of solutions to build more without exploding costs. We just need to take inspiration from promising measures adopted here and elsewhere.
A portrait like in Ontario
First challenge: We do not have the overall picture to coordinate all of the work. What are our needs? What are our resources – financial and human – to achieve this?
The Quebec Infrastructure Plan (PQI) published each year by Quebec has been severely criticized by the Auditor General1. The required investments are heavily underestimated.
As for cities, many do not even have a plan, a serious shortcoming. In Ontario, it has been mandatory since 2017. Everything is supervised by the Financial Accountability Office. Quebec should have such an organization that could provide independent monitoring of infrastructure projects.
See as far as Helsinki
Helsinki has big ambitions for public transport. The capital of Finland launched three rail projects at the same time, without creating overheating. The secret: very long-term planning2.
At home, we move forward, we move backward, we start from scratch, and costs are exploding, deplores a report from the Order of Engineers3. Think of the Quebec City tramway or the REM de l’Est in Montreal. The creation of Infra Québec is a step in the right direction to stop managing on a small-scale basis.
If we want more competition in Quebec in construction, the government must send clear signals demonstrating to companies that it is worth setting up here, that there will be work in the long term. Predictability is essential.
BIM: an obligation in the United Kingdom
To improve productivity in construction, we must innovate upstream of construction sites. This involves using the BIM system (building information modeling), which makes it possible to optimize the design of the project by computer.
3D visualization is a “powerful planning and coordination tool that helps overcome the logic of working in silos,” notes a report from the Quebec Innovation Council4. We limit the loss of materials, we reduce errors and we speed up the project.
The UK made BIM mandatory in 2016 for all public projects, supporting small businesses in the transition. A model to follow for Quebec, where the use of BIM remains timid.
Build like IKEA furniture
Here, we do too much tailor-made. Automation is a promising avenue for making workers more productive and reducing costs. Sweden5 and the Netherlands6 are leaders. The Dutch use pre-assembled elements in 47% of projects, underlines a report from the Institut du Québec.
Pre-assembled panels, factory-designed bathroom modules… Houses can be built like IKEA furniture. But off-site construction is not limited to residential. Sections of the Samuel-De Champlain Bridge were prefabricated.
To integrate more modular, projects must be standardized, because the development of a factory requires significant investments and manufacturers need economies of scale to amortize costs.
Drones in Australia
Beyond the machinery, the entire organization of work can be optimized.
Regulations, which are expensive and slow down projects, should be simplified. In Canada, you have to wait 249 days on average for a building permit, one of the longest wait times in OECD countries, where the average is 152 days. Any ideas? Shorten forms, allow several requests to be processed in parallel, help companies navigate the administrative maze…
For their part, builders can implement all kinds of tools to better monitor the work. For example, the Australian government promotes the use of drones for site mapping and construction site monitoring.
Money down the drain? See Repentigny
In Quebec, we waste water. But just because it’s free doesn’t mean it doesn’t cost anything. It would take $49 billion to repair aging water infrastructure, including the streets above. The municipalities cannot do it. They are stuck between their promises to limit tax increases to inflation and increasing construction costs twice as much.
Result: 43 municipalities, such as Lévis and Sherbrooke, imposed moratoriums which slowed down the construction of 36,000 new houses in 2025 because their water treatment plants were no longer supplying. All this in the middle of the housing crisis!
Sooner or later, we will have to think about water meters, which are three times less used in Quebec than in Ontario and Alberta. In Repentigny, water consumption has remained stable for 20 years, thanks to the installation of meters, while the population has increased by 18%, according to a report from the Association of Construction and Housing Professionals of Quebec (APCHQ)7.
The projects that cost the least are those that don’t need to be built.
1. Read a report from the Auditor General of Quebec
2. Read the article “While it drags on in Quebec, the ambition for the tramway is salivating in Helsinki”
3. Consult a report from the Order of Engineers of Quebec
4. Check out an Innovation Council report
5. Read the article “Building our homes like IKEA furniture”
6. Consult the “Innovate in Construction” report
7. Read an APCHQ report
