As infrastructure investment races to rebuild some of the economic damage from COVID-19, construction spending in Canada has taken center stage. Our construction projects have long been a major investment industry — we spent $1.3 trillion on construction in 2019 alone. Over the coming decades, we expect to see a steady increase in construction projects, and our research suggests that the costs of construction will also rise significantly. With more projects and greater expenses creating a double-edged challenge, left unchecked, construction costs could soar unsustainably high. But integrating smart technology throughout the construction lifecycle could play an important role in mitigating and even reversing those costs.