The challenge for the construction industry in Saskatchewan and across Canada is not finding enough work, it’s finding enough supplies.  Megan Jane with the Saskatchewan Construction Association says its members have reported a shortage of cement and lumber, and these are foundational supplies. She expects it’s because so many people have decided during the pandemic to do renovations to their homes or businesses, and some are building new homes.

Along with the demand, there are also supply chain delays with more deliveries of all kinds happening since the pandemic, meaning more demand for the transportation industry. Jane says things are taking longer to arrive and costing more, so it becomes a vicious cycle.

The manager of L and S Lumber in Rosthern , Wilf Sten, certain types of lumber and Oriented Strandboard (OSB) are becoming more difficult to find and the prices have risen quite a bit. He stresses that the rise isn’t coming from the local level.

Sten says, “We haven’t changed the margins that we put on our products. Sometimes you feel like you have to bite the bullet and actually put on a little less margin just to make things look somewhat reasonable, but you can only afford to do a certain amount of that.”