📈 Modular's big moment

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Good morning! 💡 Let there be light! The Gordie Howe Bridge lit up for the first time ever last week as the project team tested the bulbs that highlight its stay cables and bridge deck. Construction is expected to wrap on the border crossing later this year.

⏰ Today’s read: 5 minutes

MARKETS

Economy: New StatsCan data shows that in July 2025, Canadian investment in non-residential building construction rose 0.4% from June, totaling $6.76 billion. Provincial results were mixed, with the largest gains in Alberta (+4.3%) and New Brunswick (+2.4%) and declines in the Northwest Territories (-15.6%) and Prince Edward Island (-6.5%).

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NEED TO KNOW

The week's headlines

👷🏻 Succession: Procore Technologies has announced Ajei Gopal as its Chief Executive Officer Designate and new Board member, set to succeed founder and current CEO Tooey Courtemanche, with an anticipated start date of November 10, 2025. Courtemanche will transition to focus on his role as Chair of the Board. 

👎 Failing grade: A new report from the University of Ottawa’s Missing Middle Initiative for RESCON has given most Greater Golden Horseshoe municipalities, including Toronto, failing grades for housing performance, citing steep declines in starts, sales, and jobs. Of 34 municipalities assessed, 22 received an F, while only Brantford (A+) and Milton (A) ranked well.

🚧 Expansion request: The Haisla Nation-led Cedar LNG project in Kitimat, B.C., has applied to regulators to increase its approved production capacity by 25%, from three to 3.75 million tonnes of LNG annually, citing greater economic returns, better pipeline utilization, and long-term benefits. Co-owned with Pembina Pipeline Corp., Cedar is expected to begin operations in 2028 using BC Hydro power to achieve one of the lowest carbon footprints among LNG facilities.

🚃 Zoning overhaul: Toronto is moving to overhaul zoning rules around transit stations after the province approved 120 Major and Protected Transit Station Areas, unlocking higher-density development near subway, light rail, and GO stations. The move supports Ontario’s target of 285,000 new homes in Toronto by 2031 and ties into $471 million in federal Housing Accelerator Fund money.

THE BIG STORY

Is Build Canada Homes modular construction’s big moment?

Canada is positioning modular and industrialized construction as a core solution to the housing crisis. With a new federal agency and a push to standardize, finance, and bulk-procure factory-built homes, 2026 could mark a real shift—if demand, risk, and execution line up.

Opportunity knocks: Build Canada Homes launched with a $13-billion budget focused on building thousands of affordable housing units at scale and financing projects that explicitly aim to use offsite and modular methods. 

Predictability: Leaders in the sector view consistent, long-term demand as the critical unlock. They expect stable order pipelines to attract investment, expand capacity, and draw more workers into factory environments with predictable schedules—while retaining seasoned tradespeople to train the next generation.

Managing risk: Former CMHC expert Atul Bhatt says the prevailing “build now, pay later” model is strained by rising input costs and lagging wages. While modular offers benefits and solutions, his research catalogues 217 modular risk factors for projects and believes establishing a risk rating system as well as rolling housing-demand forecasts could push industrialization over the top. 

Late to the party: Construction is a late adopter of factory methods, but the pattern is familiar. Autos, appliances, and consumer tech became affordable once mass production met sustained demand. Advocates argue modular can follow the same curve: standardized designs, reliable order pipelines, and full factory utilization driving unit costs down and unlocking real affordability.

Here’s how Henry Ford thought about it: "There is one rule for the industrialist and that is: Make the best quality of goods possible at the lowest cost possible, paying the highest wages possible."

PROJECT SPOTLIGHT

Staying limber

Now complete, Limberlost Place at George Brown College is getting a warm reception in Toronto. Architecture critic Alex Bozikovic described the mass timber facility as a quiet but groundbreaking achievement in Canadian architecture—an understated building that reveals its innovation only once inside. Officials believe it will contribute to significant revisions of the national and provincial building codes to allow for mass-timber buildings over six storeys. 

PROJECT UPDATES

Lynn Canyon Suspension bridge closes for construction

Montreal's Van Horne overpass faces uncertain future

Final blades installed at Benjamins Mill Wind Project

Work wrapping up on innovative Timber House in B.C. 

Crews make progress on Agassiz recreation centre

Ontario invests $12M for community centre upgrades

Ice cream maker announces $200M expansion in Grey County

Ground breaks for pet centre in South Georgian Bay

WHAT WE’RE TALKING ABOUT

🎙️ PODCAST: Digging In’s weekly headlines

📊 POLL: Canadians support jobs over climate policy

🥇 AWARDS: VRCA announces Gold project winners

💰 READ: OpenAI investing $100B to build out data centres

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Here’s to a great rest of the week!

Disclaimer: SiteNews is an independently-operated news website. Views expressed are that of the editorial team and are based on publicly available information unless otherwise noted through sponsored content.