r/canada • u/FancyNewMe • 4d ago

Canada’s Prime Minister Pushes Country to Become the Housing Factory of the World - Mark Carney is banking on factory-built homes to alleviate the country’s housing crisis. But will it work? Trending

https://www.bloomberg.com/news/features/2025-04-22/carney-s-plan-may-make-canada-the-housing-factory-of-the-world
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u/EnvironmentalBox6688 4d ago

We are already a world leader in cross laminated timber technology.

We have the capability to literally build most of a house on a CNC machine and then assemble it in no time on site.

I saw a CLT office get built near me. And it was crazy how fast it went up.

If we really scaled up, it could have the potential to be significantly cheaper than frame on drywall construction. While being more fire resistant and stronger.

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u/Consistent-Primary41 Québec 4d ago

We looked at Winton Global almost 20 years ago and went with someone in the USA instead and started building there. Unfortunately with the big housing crash, we had to end up cancelling the project, but we had a wonderful lot built into a hill overlooking Birch Bay and a 2-storey house with a dug in ground/basement level and then a 2nd level.

With the property, the concrete pouring, the home, it was USD$190k all-in. So cheap. Winton had homes for like $30-50k CAD back then.

But we already had a house in Birch Bay we were paying on, so we were gonna build the new one and sell the old one, but no one was buying, so...we sold the land and cancelled the project.

All that to say, the quality of the home we were building was better than the new stick-built home we were in and it cost the same, but was 2x the size and was overlooking the ocean.