Trump orders are ‘creating delays’ for projects, but U.S. remains appealing: WSP head

WSP Global Inc. chief executive Alexandre L'Heureux says the Trump administration has caused holdups on major projects south of the border, but that the United States remains an attractive market.

Reviews of Biden-era infrastructure, transportation and clean energy projects ordered by President Donald Trump have bogged down progress on some contracts and slowed cash flow, L'Heureux said on a conference call with analysts Thursday.

"It is creating some delays, whether you like it or not. When you're changing priorities like this and you're reviewing projects like that, it is going to create some delays," he said.

However, few projects funded by a pair of landmark legislative packages under Trump's predecessor were cancelled or significantly delayed, he said.

About $128 billion or 71 per cent of the funding under review was approved while 10 per cent was scrapped and 19 per cent was "pending a decision," according to a July report from the U.S. Government Accountability Office.

L'Heureux said the United States remains the largest market in the world for pure-play engineering firms like WSP, and that it also yields big profit margins.

"My view of our U.S. business and the infrastructure market in the U.S. has not changed. I think it's a buoyant market, the demand is there. More importantly, the needs are there," he said.

"It's just a moment in time, and we'll get back on the growth mode when all that noise is behind us."

The Americas — mainly the United States — accounted for 47 per cent of WSP's net revenues in its third quarter.

However, the organic growth lay elsewhere. On Wednesday evening, the Montreal-based company reported that Canada and some overseas regions enjoyed double-digit organic growth in net revenues.

Canada, which accounted for 15 per cent of net revenues, marks its highest-margin area and "remains a healthy market, especially with energy," L'Heureux said.

Across the Atlantic Ocean, WSP and a partner were hired to provide technical support for charging stations along England's highways and major public roads.

Meanwhile, L'Heureux said its U.S. segment saw a slower pace of project conversion — when awarded contracts turn into active work and income — thanks partly to the spending reviews prompted by the White House.

Backlash to data centres in America poses no more than a small threat to WSP's income, he said. 

"A small part of our work in transmission modernization work, in substation design, is related to data centres," he told analysts.

Overall, WSP's order book grew 23.5 per cent year-over-year to a record $20.3 billion.

"The gap between backlog and revenue growth reflects slower project burn rather than any meaningful deterioration in demand," said analyst Frederic Bastien of Raymond James in a note to investors. "A little less conversion, a little more traction."

WSP also continued its long-running buying spree over the past six weeks, completing or announcing three acquisitions since late September to add nearly 800 staff members.

The two done deals were for U.K. building services consultancy Hulley & Kirkwood and Australian environmental consultancy e2m, while an agreement to buy fellow Montreal firm GCM Corpo was announced last month.

WSP now counts 85,500 employees versus 55,300 five years ago after a purchase frenzy that included TRC Cos., a power and energy firm based in Connecticut, in February and U.K.-based Ricardo in October 2025.

The spree has not come without the occasional hitch. In September, WSP said it was withdrawing an ambitious proposal to buy Arcadis for what amounted to roughly $7.5 billion after being "unable to engage" the Dutch engineering firm.

This report by The Canadian Press was first published Nov. 5, 2026.

Companies in this story: (TSX:WSP)

By Christopher Reynolds | Copyright 2026, The Canadian Press. All rights reserved.