British Columbia, Canada is launching the Mass Timber Action Plan, which aims to have as many as 10 new mass timber manufacturers by 2035, on top of announcing funding for four new mass timber housing and infrastructure projects as a key step in the StrongerBC Economic Plan.
The Mass Timber Action plan will also help to boost the sector’s skills training through trade programmes at post-secondary institutions, and to fill an anticipated 4,400 additional job openings in manufacturing, construction and design.
Ravi Kahlon, the Canadian Minister of Jobs, Economic Recovery and Innovation, along with several cabinet ministers, announced the action plan and CA$1.2 million in funding at the University of Victoria, where a 783-bed mass timber student housing and dining project is set to open in September 2022.
According to Lesprom, the Mass Timber Demonstration Programme will include four new projects ranging from multi-family homes to mixed-use commercial and industrial buildings.
Successful programme applicants in 2022 were:
- Monad Granville: A prefabricated mass-timber high-rise, mixed-use housing. Scalable industrialised solution to address climate change and housing affordability.
- The Confluence: Combined tourist information centre, technology incubator, chamber of commerce office and meeting facilities. It will reportedly be the “only Passive-House-certified institutional building in the B.C. Interior”.
- MAN 6: Hybrid mass-timber and concrete structure featuring cross-laminated timber and glue-laminated timber with concrete core.
- L’Alliance Française: A four-storey assembly occupancy building which will feature exposed mass timber equivalent to non-combustible steel or concrete construction.
Source: Lesprom
