B.C. NDP Leader David Eby was in Cumberland today (Sept. 27) to announce a pledge to back the growth of factory-built homes.

He explained this would free up red tape that can tie up the building of new homes, turning existing homes into duplexes or triplexes and help reduce costs for B.C. residents trying to buy a home.

He also touched on the lack of affordable housing meaning that young B.C. residents would look to another province for their housing needs. 

鈥淲e鈥檝e got to be aggressive at addressing affordable housing because this issue is corrosive to the future of our province, if young people can鈥檛 see a future for themselves.鈥�

Eby made the announcement at ORCA, a Vancouver Island-based company specializing in innovative, precision-crafted home construction in Cumberland. The area is quickly being built up with factory-built homes. 

鈥淲e have put into place across the province, a set of rules that legalizes townhomes, duplexes and triplexes.鈥�

He stated that this can help relieve the burden of housing costs on seniors who may now be empty nesters and want to change their homes into duplexes for an income suite now that they have space vacated by their children.

鈥淎 suite for family members, for grandkids to live there too, and then they start the process of exploring what it would take to do that.鈥�

Currently, there is what Eby calls excessive red-tape, keeping seniors from changing their home's footprint and young people from getting in the housing market. 

The idea of factory-built homes is considered straightforward to Eby. By moving construction inside, workers will no longer be dependent on weather conditions, having to deal with municipalities construction demands and it makes the building environment for trade workers less harsh. 

鈥淚n a controlled factory environment, you can build faster, you can build with less waste. The homes that are built are more consistent and more efficient and it鈥檚 cheaper. You also are really reducing the demands that are placed on the skilled trades that you鈥檙e dependent on because they are working in the same place every day.鈥�

Currently, 10 certified manufacturing plants are in B.C., and many have additional capacity to expand. State-of-the-art, energy-efficient construction, even of multi-unit homes, can take only 12 weeks.

鈥淭his is a province wide framework, a consistent set of standards. For pre-manufactured homes that are assembled on-site, so that regardless of which city you're in, which regional district you are in, you know that your factory-produced homes meet the requirements of that municipality, he said."

"This also takes the pressure off municipalities as you no longer have to inspect every single home, every single step of the way.鈥�