The Ontario Construction Association Alliance (OCAA) represents and is owned by seven regional construction associations across Ontario. Together, our member associations span the full breadth of Ontario’s construction industry — from the major ICI general contractors and specialty subcontractors who deliver the province’s hospitals, schools, transit systems, and industrial facilities, to the residential builders and renovation contractors who are growing Ontario’s communities, to the professional firms, suppliers, and tradespeople who keep it all moving.

In recognition of International Women’s Day, we release this report as a shared commitment across all seven of our member associations. It is both a recognition and a call to action. A recognition of the thousands of women who have built careers in Ontario’s construction industry — the civil engineers, the site superintendents, the electricians and carpenters completing apprenticeships, the executives leading construction firms, and the professionals who bring skill and dedication to every project. And a call to action because the data in these pages is honest: women remain significantly underrepresented at nearly every level of our industry, most acutely in the ICI skilled trades and in executive leadership of larger construction organizations.

Ontario’s construction industry is at a critical juncture. The province faces a projected shortfall of more than 100,000 construction workers over the next decade, driven by an aging workforce and a pipeline of major capital investment — in transit, healthcare, housing, energy, and industrial development — that will require more skilled people than the current labour pool can supply. Meeting that demand without drawing more women into the industry is not possible. This is not a social argument alone. It is an economic reality.

As an alliance of regional associations, we are uniquely positioned to drive change across the full geography of Ontario’s construction markets — from the GTA to Northern Ontario, from Southwestern Ontario to the National Capital Region. This report is the foundation of that effort. We commit to using it as a platform for action: in member education programs, in our relationships with colleges, universities, and skilled trades training organizations, in our advocacy with the provincial and federal governments, and in how each of our seven member associations shows up in its local community.

We invite every contractor, every union local, every college, and every government partner to read this report and ask the same question we are asking ourselves: what one concrete change will we make in 2026?

Happy International Women’s Day to every woman who builds Ontario.