001-48_126_RENEW_SEPT-OCT26_PT - Flipbook - Page 8
LABOUR
THE DIGITAL MANDATE
Solving Canada’s construction labour shortage
by John Tenpenny
T
John Tenpenny is the
editor of ReNew Canada.
john@SiteMediaGroup.com
Eliminating the admin drain
For modern contractors, e昀케ciency is no longer an abstract
corporate goal; it is the only viable path to growth while
squeezed between volatile schedules and tight budgets.
However, legacy work昀氀ows continue to impose a heavy
“administrative tax” on daily operations.
Lengieza highlighted how disconnected systems drain
valuable project hours long before workers step onto the
jobsite. “We spend—and we have research to back this up
in some of our reports—about 80 per cent of [our] time
just looking for information that [we] need to do [our]
job,” Lengieza explained. “The second is really putting
information in multiple places and in multiple systems...
having to copy, paste, take it from one place, put it into
another.”
He noted that Procore’s ROI research revealed 83 per
cent of surveyed customers agreed that consolidating data
onto a single platform improved collaboration, capturing
between two to six hours of saved time per employee each
week.
Leon agreed that these administrative bottlenecks
actively harm broader national productivity. “We 昀椀nd
8—RENEW CANADA – MARCH/APRIL 2026
quite a lot of construction professionals, rather than
they should be building, [are] actually spending
too much time trying to manage the information
than building,” Leon said. Citing the joint CCAKPMG Digital Maturity Report, Leon noted that
improving productivity is now an urgent industry
imperative.
Milner observed that while digital tools
are slowly permeating 昀椀eld sites, back-o昀케ce
operations o昀昀er immediate low-hanging fruit for
automation. “A lot of this stu昀昀 that we’re looking
at from a digitization perspective, purely from
getting rid of those high admin tasks, are really
around the corporate... things like 昀椀nance, legal,
HR.”
The panelists agreed that removing these
systemic barriers allows trade professionals to
focus on their primary passion: building. As
Lengieza pointed out, “Most people came to
construction to build... let’s get some of those
barriers gone so that they can get back to the thing
that likely they came to this industry because they
know and love.”
THE PANEL:
KRIS LENGIEZA,
Vice President, Global Technology
Evangelist, Procore
KENNY LEON,
Vice President, Member Services
and Technology, Canadian
Construction Association
BRANDON MILNER,
Chief Information Officer
& Senior Vice President, EllisDon
GETTY IMAGES
HE CANADIAN CONSTRUCTION industry stands at a critical
crossroads. By 2026, one in 昀椀ve Canadian construction workers will be over the age of 55, pointing
toward an impending retirement wave that threatens
project schedules and economic growth nationwide.
The industry simply cannot hire its way out of this
shortfall—it must digitize its way out.
That imperative was the central theme of a recent
webinar hosted by ReNew Canada and sponsored by
Procore. A panel of industry leaders gathered to explore
how Canada’s public infrastructure projects and private
constructors are leveraging technology to eliminate
administrative drag, manage project risk, and protect 昀椀eld
workers.
The expert panel featured Kris Lengieza, Vice President
and Global Technology Evangelist at Procore; Kenny
Leon, Vice President of Member Services and Technology
at the Canadian Construction Association (CCA); and
Brandon Milner, Chief Information O昀케cer and Senior Vice
President at EllisDon.
