Evidence of meeting #129 for Human Resources, Skills and Social Development and the Status of Persons with Disabilities in the 44th Parliament, 1st Session. (The original version is on Parliament’s site, as are the minutes.) The winning word was industry.
A recording is available from Parliament.
Liberal
Michael Coteau Liberal Don Valley East, ON
Thank you very much, Mr. Chair.
Thank you to our witnesses today.
Like my colleague opposite, I think it's pretty exciting stuff when you see technology and innovation brought into a sector like homebuilding, because homes, I'm assuming, have pretty much followed the same formula for the last hundred years, and you're disrupting the industry.
I'd like to speak to all three witnesses, because I thought all of the information that was provided was very valuable.
I'll start with Mr. Royer.
You talked about capital costs, the investment necessary to start an operation like yours. When you're at full capacity, what are we talking about to make transformative changes? Are we talking about hundreds of millions of dollars? How much does it cost to really build a full system at its full maximum potential?
October 10th, 2024 / 11:30 a.m.
Chief Executive Officer, Massive Canada Building Systems Incorporated
In a limited way, for our first plant, we needed to invest about $50 million, and the second plant would be much larger capacity. We wanted to go from 2,500 units per year to 20,000 units per year, and that would be north of $100 million.
The problem with the investment is the fact that every capital project in the development industry is funded by one owner, and that owner wants to build 100 units of housing pro forma, and that developer cannot afford to invest in manufacturing equipment on top of that. That manufacturing equipment needs to be amortized by 1,000 units of housing.
Chief Executive Officer, Massive Canada Building Systems Incorporated
The fact that the industry is not advanced is because of the way projects are being financed. Each project is an individual business.
Liberal
Michael Coteau Liberal Don Valley East, ON
Then the system that you've developed is basically the guts of the house. Is that correct?
Chief Executive Officer, Massive Canada Building Systems Incorporated
That's correct.
Liberal
Michael Coteau Liberal Don Valley East, ON
You build the concrete frames of homes. You send the shipping container over, and it may have one unit or several units inside of it.
Is it just one unit per container?
Chief Executive Officer, Massive Canada Building Systems Incorporated
One unit fits on a truck with all the walls flat-packed behind it, so one truck is one apartment.
Chief Executive Officer, Massive Canada Building Systems Incorporated
In our 124-unit project, we're going to build 124 boxes like this, Condo Core, and ship them to site.
Liberal
Michael Coteau Liberal Don Valley East, ON
Regarding the incorporation of your technology, is it more about speed, or is it about saving for the developer and the end-user?
Chief Executive Officer, Massive Canada Building Systems Incorporated
It's both. We're going to shave a project from from 30 months to 12 months with that technology, and we're going to save money.
Liberal
Michael Coteau Liberal Don Valley East, ON
Would you be able to share with the committee some information about what that package looks like? You can give it to the clerk, and we'll include it. That's great. Thank you so much for being here.
Mr. Searles, the company that you own or you work with in Kingston, the frames that you build, are they just the concrete modular frame of the home, or do you build everything inside as well?
President, Lodestar Structures Incorporated
We don't finish out the projects, but what we do have is a complete system right from footings to dry shell, including all of the structural components and all the exterior components. When we hand it over, it's essentially out of the environment. We've focused our time on rapid construction in that regard. For an example, we have a 16,000-square-foot building going up in Kingston that we expect to build in three days.
President, Lodestar Structures Incorporated
We have two six-storey buildings with a parking structure in between that will house 144 units plus full parking and full amenities. We would expect that it would be done in less than 60 days.
We're focused on speed of delivery and speed of closing the product in, and then hand it over to the developer from there.
Liberal
Michael Coteau Liberal Don Valley East, ON
Hypothetically speaking, if I was purchasing one of your products, what would I get at the end?
President, Lodestar Structures Incorporated
It depends on what you agree with, but we're focused on the dry shell.
Somebody would excavate on site and put down a compacted granular base, based on the parameters that we would set out in an engineering design. We would give the engineering design and all of the install work for a closed building.
Chief Executive Officer, Massive Canada Building Systems Incorporated
We want to work together.
Liberal
Michael Coteau Liberal Don Valley East, ON
I was going to say, you guys seem like a good fit. I was thinking the same thing.
How much time do I have left? I have one minute.
I'm sorry to our friend online. I had a lot of questions to ask you, but I'm just going to end here.
Is there a mechanism that allows innovative companies like yours to connect with each other?
Chief Executive Officer, Massive Canada Building Systems Incorporated
We connected here last night and certainly we want to explore collaboration.
Liberal
Michael Coteau Liberal Don Valley East, ON
You can say our committee helped in forging this relationship.
Chief Executive Officer, Massive Canada Building Systems Incorporated
Absolutely.
