Special to Northern Ontario Construction News
Construction has begun on a factory in Kirkland Lake that will design and build prefabricated modular home panels to address urgent housing needs in northern and remote First Nations communities.
The $20 million, 24,000-square-foot factory set to open next June will produce up to 100 modular homes per year and employ 30 workers per shift. Along with the factory with an on-site daycare and cultural room, the women-led project will include a 10,000-square-foot administration building and a year-round training centre with accommodations for staff and students.
The centre will focus on training Indigenous women for careers in the construction trades while building a local workforce.
An initiative of the Keepers of the Circle, a non-profit operated by the Temiskaming Native Women’s Support Group to fill a services gap for Indigenous women and their families, the project is an expansion of a pilot program where Indigenous women were trained to build a modular tiny home.
The facility will build panels for climate resistant and culturally appropriate one-bedroom, three-bedroom and multiplex buildings across northern Ontario municipalities. The factory will use non-toxic materials along with solar, wind, and geothermal technologies to support energy independence and efficiency, Keepers of the Circle said in a statement.
“We hope to provide high quality, sustainable, and affordable housing for Indigenous and northern communities while also creating more opportunities for Indigenous peoples to create meaningful careers in the housing sector,” the group says.
It says the modular panels will be assembled indoors and stored year-round to fit the north’s seasonal construction schedule. They can be shipped on winter roads or transported by train and truck and installed in summer, with the construction model suited for replication across the country.
The hope is that Indigenous communities — where many people are living in homes with mould and poor ventilation that rely on diesel generators — will benefit from Indigenous-designed, healthy residences.
The goal is also to provide economic development opportunities for Indigenous peoples and to stimulate the local economy by increasing investment in energy-efficient housing.
Kirkland Lake Mayor Stacy Wight has said the northeastern Ontario town sold the land to Keepers of the Circle for $1 per acre in July of 2024 “in the spirit of reconciliation.”