b'Post-COVID Era Another significant COVID change is price volatil-ity and supply shortages of construction materials. Af-Supply shortages, caused by closed plants and other COVID safetyter decades of stable material prices, volatile and rising prices have surfaced during COVID. Concern has risen requirements, have also been prevalent during the pandemic. Toamong industry experts that this volatility could become a norm in the future, which could create financial havoc guard against this occurring in the future, construction companiesfor contractors with current and future project contracts should review various options to lessen their risk.in the post-COVID era.Because of more stable pricing in the past, small in-creases during a project could be handled in most in-stances because contractors allow for this in their project bid. However, contractors risk will increase considerably if substantial price increases continue into the future.Contract solutions such as lump-sum or percentage allowances will probably not work in this scenario. So-lutions to this potential risk require a change to future contract language to include provisions such as price in-dex allowances for significant increases in material costs.Supply shortages, caused by closed plants and other COVID safety requirements, have also been prevalent during the pandemic. To guard against this occurring in the future, construction companies should review vari-ous options to lessen their risk. For example, companies could look at how they are structured (e.g. explore ver-tical integration) or change their relationship with sup-pliers to ensure materials needed on future projects are readily available.A final challenge that is becoming a concern in the last few months is the threat of rising interest rates. Af-ter years of low lending rates and resultant affordable carrying costs, contractors will need to take the cost of lending into account when pricing out a project. Simply put, they have to take the necessary time to plan their bids around changing financial terms that are occurring in the industry, explains Mollenhauer.The FutureA report from BuildForce Canada released in March 2021 noted that Construction in Canada [is] expected toreboundin2021inthewakeoftheCOVID-19 pandemic and rise through the coming decadealbeit atmoremutedlevelsthaninthepast10years.In addition, the timing and progress of the recovery hinges on the success of the vaccine programs and improving economicindicators,includingconsumerconfidence, demandforexportsandremovalofinternational travel restrictions.BuildForce is also forecasting that the construction workforcewillincreasebynearly65,000workers(six per cent higher than 2020) over the next 10 years. Com-pared with the nearly 260,000 workers forecast to retire over that period, the current skilled labour deficiency will become more acute. According to BuildForce Cana-da Executive Director Bill Ferreira, The industry will be challenged to recruit more than 309,000 new workers to replace retirees and keep pace with demand.A productive, safe and healthy construction industry is vital as part of the overall economic recovery in On-tario. As Mollenhauer notes: Coming out of COVID, members need to be aware of change happening in the industry, embrace it and close the gap on uncertainty throughcarefulbusinessplanningandinvestmentin technology to increase productivity and competitiveness going forward.14ONTARIO ROOFING NEWSISSUE 3 2021 THE ONLY SOURCE FOR PROFESSIONAL ICI ROOFING CONTRACTORS IN ONTARIO ORN'