A modular housing builder is set to receive federal funding to upgrade its Ancaster, Ont., facility and ramp up production to increase the country’s “attainable homes” supply.
The $2.5-million investment from Ottawa is expected to allow BECC Modular’s Hamilton-area plant to punch out 2,200 structures per year of single and multi-story buildings through an expansion of production lines.
MP Filomena Tassi, the minister responsible for the Federal Economic Development Agency for Southern Ontario, characterizes the move as an investment in innovation “to get homes built faster.”
During a press conference Monday, Tassi explained some of the cash will be tied to the development of skilled labour and the creation of 35 new related jobs in Hamilton.
“If you don’t have the people to build the homes, you’re not going to get them built,” she said.
“We are investing significant amounts of money to ensure that we are providing workers with the training they need in order to take up those jobs that are going to create the homes that are needed.”
BECC’s production is expected to produce turn-key modular homes for affordable housing projects and commercial properties annually.
CEO Ali Ozden says the cash will also “dramatically” up production output via new machinery which includes the acquisition of a hydraulic pressure machine and a fiber laser steel cutter.
“That will allow us to build that dream of 120 modules a day,” said Ozden.
“We’re going to create more jobs… increase the speed of affordable housing, but also decrease the cost of building dwellings by doing that.”
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