At Caivan / ABIC, we are…

At Caivan / ABIC, we are fully supportive of “The Case for Change” presented herein, as our organization has been directly involved in the integration of modern tools to expedite home building. Using proprietary technology and advanced manufacturing equipment, we have seen a reduction in the time to frame a typical single detached home from more than 4 weeks to less than 2 days. This reduced framing duration would not have been possible without the integration of manufacturing equipment, indoor (off-site) construction methods, and proprietary automation programs.

With respect to materials, advanced wood construction encourages the innovation of traditional processes. Typically, process innovation is coupled with material innovation to realize true and maximum benefit. Notwithstanding current materials, having a means to expedite the approval of new materials, which can be employed in specific construction processes, would greatly benefit the development of advanced wood construction techniques.

Objective 3 of the Action Plan speaks to stimulating innovation and investment in advanced manufacturing facilities and processes. It’s important to note that the high capital costs of these facilities must be amortized over a large volume / scale to offer a viable return on investment. Partnerships with all levels of government to support the scale of these manufacturing facilities and processes would allow for a rapid and unprecedented supply growth to help meet housing demand. Included in this Action Plan should be a framework for governments to provide greater certainty over a steady, continuous, and long-term supply of permit-ready land for housing projects. This would significantly de-risk the high capital cost and on-going operating expenses of operating manufacturing facilities focused on advanced wood construction.

Objective 4 of the Action Plan addresses the need to demonstrate and display advanced wood construction to exemplify innovation, provide opportunities for research, and instill confidence in adopting new products and processes. This objective would be strongly supported through partnership between government and private sector in using advanced manufacturing techniques to help solve Canada’s housing crisis. Coupling the availability of land and capability in advanced wood construction through strategic partnerships would speak huge volume to the importance government is placing on solutions to address the current housing shortfall.

In Action 2.2, the Action Plan mentions collaboration to support the advancement of current building codes. This is an extremely important component of the Action Plan, whereby modernizing and harmonizing building codes across the country should specifically recognize innovative materials and processes, like mass timber and manufactured housing. In addition, streamlining and aligning transportation requirements throughout the province would be very beneficial to further promoting the use of off-site advanced wood construction techniques to build housing solutions. This would ease the transportation of housing products across the province as well as establish clear guidelines to support housing designs centred around livability instead of restricted by varying transportation requirements. Lastly, creating a fast-track approval process that would be eligible to projects that employ these innovative materials and processes would promote their wider adoption across the sector.

Action 3.4 of the Action Plan speaks to the development and commercialization of innovative, wood-based building materials by working with university partners. We believe strongly in the importance of supporting the advancement of housing solutions through strategic partnerships with universities specifically. Recently, Caivan founded the Future Cities Institute at the University of Waterloo to bring together a global network of interdisciplinary researchers from a variety of fields, industry leaders, practitioners, students and community members to develop new tools and approaches for building healthy, prosperous and sustainable cities. Having an Action Plan that specifically aligns the importance of these partnerships, and how they can make significant contributions to advancing wood construction, is critical. This would further promote others in the industry to dedicate time and resources in support of advancing wood construction by leveraging the capabilities of research centres and universities.

Thank you for the opportunity to provide comment on this Action Plan. We look forward to collaborating on its finalization and implementation to support advanced wood construction in Ontario.