It really doesn't seem like an available labor shortage.

From my observations in Newfoundland it's a combination of the most profitable product being huge single family homes and outdated (and car-centric) zoning policy that makes it difficult to construct anything else even if it was profitable.

Our issue is there's no incentive to construct affordable housing and because of years of lobbying by the automotive industry they have to be extremely low density to accommodate the large front lawns, driveways and streetside parking required for car centric living. All of this adds additional cost.

I think step one would be to fix our zoning policy and step two would be to incentivize construction of low margin high density housing. This isn't to say that single family homes should go away just the they shouldn't be the only option.