Big Moves Call for a Mandate and Collaboration

The Honourable Ravi Kahlon
Minister of Housing & Municipal Affairs
Chair, Cabinet “Trade War” Committee
Province of British Columbia

Dear Minister,

Re: Big Moves on Offsite Manufacturing to Tackle BC’s Economic & Housing Crises

Growing B.C.’s offsite building construction sector is a unique opportunity for tackling today’s greatest threat––U.S. protectionism––and essential for addressing long-standing crises, advancing three top provincial priorities:

Manufacturing Jobs: Create secure jobs in small towns, Indigenous communities and big cities with a guaranteed market, B.C., and grow export markets over time.
Accelerated Construction: Expedite permits and manage new housing, school and hospital costs.
Climate Action: Deliver on B.C.’s near-zero energy ready new construction commitment.

To harness this potential, we urge you to make big moves on offsite manufacturing:

1. Adopt a Provincial Offsite Building Construction Mandate: Guarantee delivery by appointing a senior civil servant to align policies with relevant ministries and collaborate with stakeholders on development and implementation.

2. Develop a Strategic Roadmap: Create a collaborative plan with four integrated pillars:

Demand Generation: Instill investor confidence, prioritizing offsite in long-term housing and infrastructure plans, harnessing public land for non-market housing, removing mass timber barriers.
Manufacturer Incubation: Build a thriving sector, fostering Indigenous-led solutions, incubating and accelerating manufacturing in rural and urban communities, facilitating standardization.
Ecosystem Optimization: Solve barriers downstream that increase cost, expediting permitting, supporting early adopters, advancing integrated design, supporting legislative innovation.
Financial Innovation: Strengthen investor attractiveness, closing the manufacturer cash flow gap and introducing tax credits, developing a model to cost-effectively scale high-volume non-market housing

3. Jumpstart Immediate Actions: Implement quick wins while the roadmap is developed, ensuring rapid progress.

These actions will accelerate delivery of multiple ministerial mandates, building on provincial leadership and entrepreneurial excellence across B.C.––see appendix for details.

Please advise us how the BC Government intends to take action on these big moves. We look forward, optimistically, to collaborating with you.

cc:

Hon David Eby, Premier
Hon Brittny Anderson, Minister of State for Local Governments and Rural Communities
Hon Brenda Bailey, Minister of Finance
Hon Christine Boyle, Minister of Indigenous Relations and Reconciliation
Hon Adrian Dix, Minister of Energy and Climate Solutions
Hon Mike Farnworth, Minister of Transportation & Transit
Hon Diana Gibson, Minister of Jobs Economic Development and Innovation
Hon Anne Kang, Minister of Post-Secondary Education and Future Skills
Hon Bowinn Ma, Minister of Infrastructure
Hon Ravi Parmar, Minister of Forests
Vincent Tong, BC Housing CEO

Sincerely,

We, the undersigned, represent a diverse group of public, private, and social sector stakeholders united in our commitment to driving the success of offsite manufacturing in B.C. to meet top short and long-term provincial priorities.

Public, Private and Social Sector Signatories

Manufacturing Sector (Mass Timber, Modular, Panelized, Truss)*

*Head office and B.C. manufacturing plant locations

Alliance Truss Ltd, Craig Bouwman, Operation Manager, (Abbotsford, Cobble Hill, Creston, Surrey)

ATCO Structures & Logistics Ltd, Benoît Gagné, Sr Vice President - Canada, Calgary, Kamloops

B Collective, Chris Hill, President, North Vancouver

BC Passive House, Kyle Moen, Chief Operating Officer, Pemberton

Collective Carpentry, Jan Pratschke, Owner/Director, Invermere

Freeport Industries, Jason Friesen, Sr Manager, Sales & Partnerships, Westbank

homeD Modular, Michele Tung, CEO, North Vancouver

Intelligent City, Cindy Wilson, Co Founder, CPO, Delta, Vancouver

Kalesnikoff, Ken Kalesnikoff, President and CEO ,Castlegar

Massive Canada Building Systems, Gaetan Royer, CEO, 100 Mile House, Port Moody, Williams Lake

Mercer Mass Timber, Ricardo Brites, Director of Engineering & VDC, Vancouver, Okanagan Falls

Mercer Mass Timber - OK Laminators Inc, Nick Milestone, Sr Vice President, Vancouver, Okanagan Falls

Mitsui Homes Canada, Christopher Naychuk, Sr Director, Business Development, Langley

Paradigm Building Solutions Ltd, Philipp Gruner, CEO, Barriere

ROC Modular Inc., Rhys Kane, Director of Business Development., Calgary

Ron Anderson & Sons Ltd, Matt Kiley, Chief Operating Officer, Victoria

TAG Panels, Kevin Weiler, General Manager, Squamish

Winton Homes Ltd., Doug Rooke, General Manager, Prince George

Construction Sector

Airtight Solutions Inc, Bob Deeks, President

Bernhardt Contracting, Mark Bernhardt, President

Canadian Home Builders' Association of BC, Neil Moody, CEO

CASA works ltd, Amir Sharif, Principal

Crestone Properties, Farhad Ebrahimi, CEO

ETRO Construction Ltd, Shaun St-Amour, Manager of Revive

First Peoples Group of Enterprise Inc, George Morrison, President

Homebuilders Association Vancouver (HAVAN), Wendy McNeil, CEO

Innovation Building Group Ltd, Rod Nadeau, Managing Partner

Kindred Construction, Bryan Reid, President

Naikoon Contracting Ltd, Joe Geluch, CEO

NUQO Modular, Rory Richards, CEO

RDC Fine Homes Inc, Bob Deeks, President

Richard Hall Indigenous Housing Consulting, Richard Hall, Carpentry, Design & Inspection

Sacred Waters Developments, Graham Wood, CEO

SJ Development, Steve Jedreicich, Owner

Stryke Group, Rocky Sethi, Managing Director

Urban Development Institute (UDI), Anne McMullin, President/CEO

Wildland Development, Calvin Duncan, GM of Construction

Housing & Construction Professional Services (Architecture, Engineering, General Contracting, Planning)

Affine Climate Solutions, Michaela Neuberger, Executive Director

Aspect Structural Engineers, Andrew Chad, Principal

BlackBox Offsite Solutions, Craig Mitchell, Principal

Boston Consulting, Alex Boston, Principal

Evans Architecture Inc, Richard Evans, Principal Owner

Human Studio Architecture and Design Ltd, Antoine Morris, Senior Architect

LWPAC - Lang Wilson Practice in Architecture Culture, Oliver Lang, Principal, Founder

Perkins&Will Architects, Derek Newby, Managing Director, Principal

Prakash Architecture, Neil Prakash, Owner

Public Architecture, Jamie Harte, Senior Associate

Pyramoon Innovations, Puyan Zadeh, CEO and Founder

Ryder Architecture, Adam James, Architect AIBC RIBA, Principal

Scius, Helen Goodland, Principal

ZGF Architects LLC, Jan Willemse, Partner

Forestry & Forest Products

BC Council of Forest Industries, Kim Haakstad, President and CEO

BC First Nations Forestry Council, Lennard Joe, CEO

Canadian Wood Council, Rick Jeffery, President and CEO

FPInnovations, Dorian Tung, Manager

Interior Lumber Manufacturers Association, Ted Dergousoff, President

Western Wood Truss Association of BC, Sukh Johal, Executive Director

WoodWorks BC, Shawn Keyes, Executive Director

Non-Market Housing

BC Indigenous Housing Society, Brenda Knights, CEO

BC Non-Profit Housing Association, Jill Atkey, CEO

Co-operative Housing Federation of British Columbia, Thom Armstrong, CEO

Community Land Trust Foundation of British Columbia, Thom Armstrong, CEO

Entre Nous Femmes Housing Society, Lilian Chau, CEO

False Creek South Community Housing Trust, Jim Woodward, Board Chair

Rapid Housing Foundation, Colin Doylend, Executive Director

Non-Profit Policy & Practice Innovation

BC Chamber of Commerce, Fiona Famulak, President and CEO

BC Real Estate Association, Trevor Koot, CEO

Foresight Canada, David Sanguinetti, COO

Passive House Canada, Chris Ballard, CEO

Small Housing, Daniel Winer, Executive Lead

Zero Emissions Innovation Centre (ZEIC), Melina Scholefield, Executive Director

Public Sector Organizations (Local Government, Post Secondary)

City of Courtenay, Bob Wells, Mayor

City of Kelowna, Ryan Smith, Director, Planning, Climate & Development

City of Nelson, Janice Morrison, Mayor

City of Vancouver, Ken Sim, Mayor

City of Williams Lake, Surinderpal Rathor, Mayor

BCIT School of Construction and the Environment, Guido Wimmers, Dean

BCIT ZEB Learning Centre, Alex Hebert, Learning Centre Lead

UBC Centre for Advanced Wood Processing, Jason Chiu, Managing Director

UBC Housing Assessment Resource Tools (HART), Craig Jones, Associate Director, HART

University of Northern British Columbia, Mauricio Dziedzic, Chair, School of Engineering