The Province of Alberta has become a destination of choice for people seeking new opportunities due to its growing economy and lower cost of living compared to other parts of Canada, and many individuals and families are drawn to the province for its strong job market, particularly in industries like energy, technology and agriculture.
This appeal drew approximately 200,000 people to Wild Rose Country in 2024, with more than 63,000 of those people moving into the Edmonton area alone – which means more homes, businesses and infrastructure to be built.
This has created a challenging environment for Edmonton’s construction industry and members of the Edmonton Construction Association (ECA), who were already experiencing worker shortages in certain trades and significant uncertainty following the COVID-19 pandemic.
“We are also currently responding to tariffs and counter-tariffs, which have caused significant volatility and increased pricing,” says Matt Schellenberger, ECA director of corporate development. “At the same time, Edmonton and the Province of Alberta are also both facing challenging budget constraints, which means our industry has had to be creative in how it works with government to ensure timely and positive project outcomes.”
A place to build a future
Still, Alberta – and Edmonton specifically – is known for its entrepreneurial spirit and has traditionally produced strong construction companies like PCL, Ledcor, Stantec, Delnor and DIALOG, as well as many others in the region, all of which had their start in the area. With the large number of people coming into the province, Edmonton has no shortage of projects currently underway or planned, and the City of Edmonton has also been recognized nationally for the second year in a row when it comes to permitting and wait times.
“Edmonton tends to be a more blue-collar city where everybody is pulling in the same direction,” says Ryan Christensen, senior project manager and principal at Delnor Construction. “Words matter and there is a commitment from the city leadership that construction is not spending, but rather an investment in people, job creation and in the economy. However, Edmonton is also investing in itself as a tech hub, which is drawing great minds to the city and driving private investment beyond the municipal and provincial investments. There is a campaign from the provincial government that says, ‘Alberta is Calling’, and it seems as though people are listening to that message.”
So, while there are still challenges ECA members will need to navigate – in comparison to many cities across Canada – Edmonton remains a strong place to build.
That said, there are always opportunities for the city to become even stronger going forward – and one of those opportunities is coming in October 2025 with the municipal election.
Make your mark
Among its asks on behalf of its members, the ECA will be looking for renewed commitments on predictable and stable funding, improved permitting wait times to ensure projects can be completed on time and on budget, greater support for creative solutions to procurement and project delivery challenges and collaborative contract types that often involve early involvement from the general contractor and key trades.
In its operations, Delnor Construction uses an Integrated Project Delivery (IPD) model, which is a collaborative delivery method that offers a more appropriate risk allocation among all parties. This is in contrast to the traditional delivery model where the owner pushes risk to the contractor or consultant, which tends to be more adversarial and inefficient.
“The City of Edmonton has become a lot better in this arena and the process has become much more efficient – one where they’re seeking advice from industry and allows us to share in the risk and reward of the project,” says Christensen. “Going forward, we need to continue working together and not be on different sides of the fence when it comes to project delivery. We need to focus on breaking down that fence. Let’s build quicker together for a better price; that’s what we need coming out of the next election.”
The ECA also strongly stresses the importance of the City of Edmonton and its leadership understanding what is actually feasible and achievable within the current construction environment – where strong population growth and requirements for services are running into the challenges of growing financial pressures faced by construction companies.
“This has an impact on the type and scale of projects we can take on and can affect some of Edmonton’s sustainability goals going forward,” says Schellenberger. “It is clear that we want to build energy-efficient buildings and retrofits, but these buildings come with front-end increased costs, so they must be considered within the context of the reality of what is possible.”
Christenson agrees and says it’s tough to build nowadays and that companies need to be able to prioritize what they want to do as a city regarding projects.
“Edmonton wants to be at the forefront of social issues and things like net zero and, while their intentions are good, we just haven’t quite figured out how to do it in the best way yet,” says Christenson. “But we can with a more collaborative and focused approach going forward.”
Building bridges
No matter who comes out on top following voting day next October, or how different the city council may look, the ECA will be there to work with them to improve construction delivery in the region.
“The ECA has been – and will continue to be – engaged with City leadership at all levels,” says Schellenberger. “This includes mayor and council, where we are often educating those who don’t have a full understanding of how projects are delivered, but also with senior administration who are actively working on deployment of projects, and often have more expertise and experience related to construction. We very much value our strong relationship with the City of Edmonton government and will continue to engage with all city leaders where possible.”
