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Final Up to date on: twenty fourth August 2025, 06:27 pm
Canada’s housing disaster is not an issue measured in headlines or political speaking factors. It’s a structural failure that has been constructing for many years, leaving affordability out of attain for thousands and thousands of Canadians. On the identical time, the nation has dedicated to steep local weather targets, and the development sector continues to be one of many largest contributors of greenhouse gasoline emissions. The 2 issues are linked by the way in which we construct. Each new residence block poured in concrete and laced with metal locks in emissions earlier than a single gentle activates.
Addressing the housing shortfall and the local weather problem on the identical time calls for a distinct method. Mark Carney’s Construct Canada Properties initiative proposes a pathway, one I discover on this second article in my collection on cross-laminated timber, modular multi-unit residential buildings and Canada’s second of alternative. The goal of 500,000 new houses per 12 months is paired with low value loans, fairness assist, and sample e-book designs that time instantly at modular and mass timber development. The chance is to deal with this system not simply as a housing coverage however as an anchor buyer for a brand new manufacturing base.
Prefabrication and modular constructing strategies have struggled to take maintain in Canada regardless of technical proof that they’ll ship sooner, increased high quality development. A part of the issue is that the goal has usually been indifferent houses, the place scaling is subsequent to not possible. One other downside has been volatility. A manufacturing facility can not run effectively if orders fluctuate wildly, but housing demand in Canada has been topic to financial cycles and political shifts. When the pipeline of tasks dries up, factories sit idle, and when demand surges once more, ramping again up takes too lengthy. That cycle has killed off multiple promising modular enterprise. The opposite drag on velocity is approvals. Each municipality has its personal allowing course of, and constructing officers usually require customized evaluations of designs, even when these designs are repeated in a number of places. The mixture of the flawed goal market, unsure demand and gradual allowing cancels out the potential advantages of modular strategies. With out the proper constructing goal, structural demand and streamlined approvals, Canada can not depend on prefabrication to assist remedy the housing disaster.
The guiding coverage must be to deal with Construct Canada Properties as a assured purchaser. Authorities can stabilize the market by issuing multi 12 months offtake contracts to modular and CLT factories, guaranteeing a baseline of orders that preserve vegetation operating at excessive utilization. Alongside that, it ought to publish pre-approved design templates for six to 12 storey multifamily housing, the bread and butter of city provide. If a developer or a public company desires to place up a constructing inside these parameters, the allow must be quick tracked as a result of the design has already been vetted. This removes duplication and delays, and it additionally makes factories extra environment friendly, since they’ll produce standardized modules or panels quite than retooling for every undertaking. Different nations have proven the worth of this method. Sweden’s prefab business has grown underneath secure demand from authorities backed housing applications, and Japanese corporations ship hundreds of modular houses yearly utilizing standardized designs and meeting line strategies.
Translating coverage into manufacturing means actual investments on the bottom. Canada wants between ten and twelve regional factories devoted to CLT and modular housing by 2030, unfold throughout the nation to serve native markets and scale back transport prices. Every must be able to producing a minimum of 50,000 cubic meters of CLT yearly, which equates to hundreds of housing models. The capital required is critical, roughly $200 million per giant CLT line, however that’s inside attain given the $25 billion in low value loans and $1 billion in fairness financing included in Carney’s plan. The federal position is to de-risk the funding, whereas non-public capital and builders align their tasks with the brand new manufacturing base. The housing constructed underneath this technique wouldn’t be restricted to public inventory. Non-public builders might draw from the identical factories, profiting from decrease prices and sooner supply, whereas the federal government ensures present the ground of demand wanted to maintain the traces operating.
The numbers illustrate the influence. A single manufacturing facility producing 50,000 cubic meters of CLT annually might provide structural panels for roughly 2,000 mid rise flats. With a dozen factories in operation, the output can be sufficient to cowl a major fraction of the five hundred,000 annual unit goal. In comparison with standard strategies, modular CLT buildings may be erected in half the time. Flooring that take weeks to pour and treatment in concrete may be craned into place in days when product of timber panels. That velocity not solely accelerates occupancy but additionally cuts financing prices for builders, making a monetary incentive alongside the local weather one.
The embodied carbon financial savings are actual, and more and more accepted by worldwide requirements. Each cubic meter of CLT shops near a ton of CO2 absorbed by the tree, whereas emissions from manufacturing common about 120 kilograms. An electrified and sustainable forestry business and distribution can eradicate the manufacturing emissions, and that would be the foundation of an article within the collection. Constructing with CLT rather than concrete and metal can reduce embodied carbon by 15% to 40% relying on the undertaking. These financial savings accumulate rapidly when scaled to lots of of hundreds of models.
Dangers stay. If factories are underfunded or delayed, the capability is not going to be there to fulfill demand. If insurance coverage premiums for mass timber stay a number of instances increased than for concrete, tasks will battle to pencil out. If municipalities resist adopting allow quick lanes or cling to bespoke approval processes, the velocity benefit can be misplaced.
Workforce growth is one other issue. Modular factories require technicians and meeting line employees, not simply carpenters and laborers. Coaching applications should increase rapidly to fill these roles. The enablers are equally clear. Federal financing is in place, provinces are already transferring to replace constructing codes to permit taller wooden buildings, and Indigenous partnerships provide pathways for sustainable forestry and manufacturing that create regional jobs. With these items aligned, the dangers may be managed.
The conclusion is easy. Construct Canada Properties may be greater than a housing coverage. It may be the inspiration of a brand new superior manufacturing sector that delivers housing at scale, cuts embodied carbon, and gives secure jobs in areas that want them. Treating the initiative as an anchor buyer for modular and CLT factories ensures that the funding in capability pays again in sq. footage on the bottom. If Canada strikes rapidly, this system can stabilize housing provide, construct a globally aggressive timber business, and make measurable progress on local weather commitments. The selection is between repeating the previous cycles of shortage and volatility or making a secure, industrialized system that meets the wants of individuals and the planet.
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