P.E.I. looking to attract builder to set up modular home fabrication plant

The P.E.I. government is hoping to attract a private company to set up shop on the Island and build modular housing units.

In a request for expressions of interest issued Friday, the province said it would offer support for that in the form of providing a government-owned site that could be used to house the facility.

The province said the facility could also qualify for financial incentives through existing programs.

According to the EOI document, the company would have to be prepared to dedicate the majority of its production to the P.E.I. market for five years.

Expanding the production of pre-fabricated homes in P.E.I. was included as one of the goals in the province's housing strategy, released in February.

The strategy also highlights the need to push ahead with more projects that utilize the modular units "to realize the benefits of efficient construction, use of materials, labour and energy."

Sam Sanderson of the Construction Association of P.E.I. says a facility to build modular housing units in the province would be welcome, but would face some of the same struggles conventional builders are facing, including a lack of skilled labour. (Kirk Pennell/CBC )

A number of recent builds in P.E.I. have gone up using pre-fabricated units shipped in from outside the province, including apartment buildings in Charlottetown and Alberton that are operated by the Canadian Mental Health Association and built with provincial and federal funding support.

The general manager of the P.E.I. Construction Association, Sam Sanderson, welcomed the effort to have the units built within the province.

But Sanderson said any new facility set up to build pre-fabricated homes would run into some of the same challenges faced by the existing construction industry on the Island, including a shortage of skilled labour.

"That's the first question I'm going to ask: where's the labour coming from?" Sanderson told CBC News.

"Are we taking more people out of the current labour market right now to build manufactured, pre-manufactured housing?"

Sanderson said he'd also like to see the province break down costs to determine whether using modular units saves money compared to traditional construction.

The province's EOI stipulates the company would have to "implement processes and/or technology to achieve cost effectiveness."

In January, the housing ministers from the four Atlantic provinces identified factory-built housing as part of the solution needed to address the current housing crisis, pledging to find ways to boost production in the region.

For years, P.E.I. has been among the fastest-growing provinces in the country. It's also been among the hardest hit by the housing crisis.

Last October, the Canada Mortgage and Housing Corporation pegged P.E.I.'s apartment vacancy rate at 1.1 per cent, tied with Nova Scotia for the lowest in the country.

This year, P.E.I. had its strongest first quarter ever for housing starts with 394. The province has set an annual target of 2,000 new builds per year, a level only achieved once before — back in 1973.

Officials show off a bachelor unit in a new modular housing complex that opened in Charlottetown in 2022. The units for that building were shipped in from New Brunswick. (Steve Bruce/CBC)

The five locations the province identified in its EOI as possible sites for the modular construction facility are:

• Industrial Crescent, Summerside.

• Train Station Road, Albany.

• West Prince Business Park, Bloomfield.

• Commercial Road, Montague.

• Slemon Park, Summerside.

A spokesperson for the province said Minister of Economic Development, Innovation and Trade Gilles Arsenault could provide an interview on the province's plans after the closing date for the request for expressions of interest, which is June 6.