After enjoying a robust construction season last year, most Ontario contractors are expecting to do the same or less work in 2009.
Ipso Reid surveyed more than 1,000 non-residential Ontario contractors on behalf of the Ontario Construction Secretariat.
The data revealed 38 per cent expect to work less compared to 2008 and about 40 per cent expect to conduct the same amount of work.
Last year was a strong year for contractors with 45 per cent reporting they had done more business than in 2007.
It was a record-breaking year of projects for some firms which made them enough money to weather the current economic downturn. Two-thirds (75 per cent) of the companies rated their financial health as "very strong" (29 per cent), or 'strong' (46 per cent) in early 2009.
A majority of the firms surveyed (58 per cent) expect the price they charge to remain the same in 2009.
