A handful of elite construction firms are enjoying rich pickings while the rest face a scrap to survive, according to construction boss Alex DeCouto.He urged Government to take major risks to reignite the tourism industry before numerous smaller companies go bust.Mr DeCouto said work is dwindling by the day outside of the two biggest projects — King Edward VII Memorial Hospital and Waterloo House — and only a handful of firms benefit from those redevelopments in any case.Meanwhile Pembroke South East MP Ashfield DeVent reported an increasing gloom hanging over construction workers as the two main projects approach completion.Mr DeVent warned growing numbers of Bermudians are aggrieved, claiming the few remaining jobs are being swallowed up by foreigners prepared to work for cheap wages in poor conditions.Mr DeCouto, president of Greymane Contracting, told The Royal Gazette: “In the 15 or so years I have been in the industry I cannot recall the opportunities for firms being so hard to come by.“The boom in the last decade created a lot of new firms. Those firms are now scrambling to secure a shrinking volume of available projects.“Where three or four years ago we were bidding on projects against two or three other firms, we are now bidding on projects against eight, nine, even ten firms.“When I call architects’ offices to ask about opportunities to quote on projects, I hear how they are inundated with similar calls from other firms.“I also hear that they too are seeing shrinking volume and have cut back staff, cut back the work week, and are worried for their business future.“A year ago, things were starting to get this bad and firms were willing to get aggressive to secure work while assuming that it will come around eventually.“I think most are surprised and disappointed that things have not come around, rather, things continue to get worse.”BCM McAlpine is behind the hospital redevelopment, and D&J Construction won the contract for Waterloo House; both projects began last year and were described by many as lifesavers for the construction industry.The hospital is scheduled for completion in 2014, although much of it will be finished before then. Waterloo House is due to conclude next summer.Health Minister Zane DeSilva has said more than half the hospital construction workforce are Bermudians or spouses of Bermudians.But Mr DeCouto said: “Because of the hospital and Waterloo projects, good tradesmen have work.“Marginal tradesmen, or those with murky histories, are finding it very difficult because for the first time in many many years, firms can be selective.“Speculating, I think many are happy to have work and certainly are willing to take less pay for a job with decent medium-term prospects.“The mood among owners is binary. There are winners and losers. It is a lot like the English Premier League. There are a few elite clubs with a lot of money and influence at the top, leveraging that cash and influence to be successful, then a raft of clubs some distance behind all fighting for survival.”Reflecting on construction’s boom years, Mr DeCouto said: “Five years ago was the height of hubris, the very pinnacle of over-confidence and over-investment in infrastructure.“On a single Friday in the summer of 2007, bids closed for over $250 million worth of commercial projects. There were numerous hotel projects in various states of early development.“Clearly this represents a problem at the opposite end of the spectrum, where resources were stretched and prices inflated. We are also paying now for that period of over-building, we have over-supplied the market and it will take a while for demand to catch up, if it ever does.”Explaining the need to invest in tourism, he said: “At one time we had as many as 6,000 hotel rooms in Bermuda. Now we have less than half of that.“Tourism infrastructure investment is stuck in a chicken-and-egg paradox. We don’t build it because they aren’t coming, but if we don’t build it they won’t come.“Government will have to take some major risks, and find financiers willing to do the same, in order to create an environment which attracts new tourists.“Barring a few nice properties with only a limited number of rooms, our current stock is just not cutting it in terms of value for money.”Mr DeVent, who formerly worked in the construction industry, said many young men have approached him to raise fears about their future.The Progressive Labour Party backbencher said: “Many young men feel they are not being given the chance.“There’s still a mindset that a foreign worker will be preferred because he will generally work for less money and work much more hours because he doesn’t have a family to look after.”He said even tougher times could lie ahead because the modernising of the industry means it could need less workers.He remains hopeful the industry will recover eventually due to cyclical economic trends, but said of construction workers: “Not a lot of people are sharing that optimism.”Mr DeCouto, a former member of the defunct Bermuda Democratic Alliance, said: “I think we just need optimism.“We have become so pessimistic that every investment decision is dead on arrival nowadays. And being totally frank, I think we need a change of Government. Not necessarily because this one is bad and the other options superior, but because change can be good.“If you look at all the other advanced democracies around the world, they frequently vacillate between left and right as moods change and economies cycle.“I think some right-leaning policies will tilt us back towards centre, or even just give that perception, and perhaps bring some new optimism back to investment in Bermuda.”