Politicians Love to Announce 'historic investments' in infrastructure, the big numbers make small impact for the people who do the work

By Tom Parkin

December 16th, 2025

BURLINGTON, ON

Data may show wages have caught up with the dramatic price hikes of 2022, it’s not true for all workers and certainly not in all neighbourhoods of the country.

Trades workers have recently been at the centre of a lot of politics in Canada, but in most of Canada that attention hasn’t translated into wages that keep up with prices, according to two datasets released by Statistics Canada on Monday.

The data is also a reminder that while high-level aggregate data may show wages have caught up with the dramatic price hikes of 2022, it’s not true for all workers and certainly not in all neighbourhoods of the country.

Aggregate data can hide key facts. After all, when Elon Musk steps into a room everyone in it is a billionaire, on average.
Except in Vancouver, labourer wages lose to inflation

Across five major Canadian cities, the wage of a unionized construction labourer only kept up with prices in Vancouver.

The results are from the Construction Union Wage Rates tables and Consumer Price Index tables, both released by Statistics Canada on Monday.

Construction labourers’ pay packets fell significantly behind price hikes in Halifax, Calgary and Toronto, according to the data. In Halifax, over the past fives years, labourer wages rose just 7.0 per cent while prices went up 22.1 per cent, the data shows.

Trades wages up but not as much a prices

Union labourer wage, Nov 2020-Nov 2025

Among five trades in five cities, 20 of 25 groups fell behind

And the losses weren’t just for labourers. In the constructor sector from November 2020 to November 2025, the wages of plumbers, electricians, sheet metal workers and carpenters also mostly fell behind price increases in their city, the data shows.

Among the five selected trades in the five major cities, a total of 25 groups, only carpenters in Calgary and labourers, plumbers, sheet metal workers and electricians in Vancouver kept ahead of inflation.

In all five cities, plumbers topped the wage scale, with electricians or sheet metal workers usually running next. But, excepting workers in Vancouver, these workers also lost ground to prices.

In an era when politicians love to announce “historic investments” in infrastructure, in many places the big numbers are making small impact for the people who do the work.

Rate of price increases has declined from mid-2022 peak

Monthly change in consumer price index, year over year, Nov 2020- Nov 2025