By Mike Phillips
Special to Ontario Construction News
Maybe you have heard about a looming housing crisis In Ontario? Ontario Structural Wood Association (OSWA) members, and the broader wood industry, are ready to establish that this industry, this group, is an important part of the solution to that Housing Crisis.
OSWA members provide the structural solutions, be it roof trusses, floor assemblies, wall panels plus dimensional lumber and engineered wood products that our housing stock in Ontario is built with. The industry is established and ready to supply builders/developers all across this great province. We are proud supporters of WoodWorks Ontario, who are presenting with us this Light Frame Solutions Conference.
There has been lots of talk about the housing crisis in Ontario and indeed across Canada. Our province, our country, harvests the dimensional lumber needed to feed our industry.
Using offsite manufactured construction methods this industry can respond to the need! It is time for action. We have the core industry established with resources and the people needed to respond. Could we use more investment? Of course, to further increase capacity.
Do some elements of the industry need to upgrade equipment, systems and facilities? Yes indeed, but featured at the conference we have equipment and product suppliers – ready to jump forward with those elements.
This is an industry primed to supply growth – we already build a vast majority of single-family homes in Ontario – and we are ready and capable of supplying the missing middle, everything beyond single family homes up to 10 and 12 story multi-unit housing developments, just what is needed to increase density and create the housing stock we need to meet this housing crisis head on. Those who are not ready, look out as there are hungry companies ready to take your business. The time for talk is over, now is the time for action!
The conference will discuss those solutions, those opportunities for the wood industry in Ontario. How to build effectively and efficiently with wood – how to Frame it Right! We look into the future, or more correctly the present, and see how multi-unit developments are getting built with dimensional lumber right now in Ontario. How quality control is being implemented in the industry to meet the demands of the building codes and the design community that demands quality. And what about the added benefit that wood is THE low carbon housing solution.
Wood has an important role to play in the mitigation of climate change! We’ll also take a step back and look at the economics of the housing market and the structural wood sector in Ontario. Our bottom line . . . Wood is Good, in fact wood is the gold standard of building materials.
Our conference is designed to help the structural wood meet the lofty goals that are present and demand our attention. There are solutions and opportunities right here in Ontario, ready to be harvested.
For more information about the conference, including the full agenda:
https://www.eventbrite.ca/e/light-frame-wood-solutions-conference-toronto-2024-tickets-755612767127
Mike Phillips is the executive director at Ontario Structural Wood Association (OSWA)