Company chooses Barrie as location to make dent in Canada’s housing crisis

EBS Global marked the opening of its manufacturing plant in Barrie, promising to build homes in a faster and cheaper way.

A company that builds modular housing, has chosen Barrie as its location to help revolutionize the industry.

EBS Global marked the opening of its manufacturing plant on Thursday, where it says it will utilize prefabrication technology to build homes in a faster and cheaper way.

“We see the shortage of housing in Canada,” said Fesih Zeki Mert, EBS Global President. “The system we’ve put together is a metal start structure, we can offer eight-storey buildings and build quickly.”

Modular housing refers to homes whose parts are predominantly built in a factory and assembled on-site.

The company will utilize steel and aluminum to build prefabricated housing frames and employ roughly 70 people at its Barrie plant to do it.

Zeki Mert said steel and aluminum framing, traditionally seen in commercial properties, will allow EBS Global to build structures within weeks, rather than months at a time.

It will also be utilizing 100 per cent of Canadian steel and aluminum, avoiding any potential tariff-related challenges.

“We want to make sure, especially on this date, with the inflation rate very high, we want to be 100 per cent Canadian,” he said. “We want to build more houses in Canada and make sure housing prices come down.”

Barrie Mayor Alex Nuttall said he’s thrilled to see the company choose the city as its headquarters.

“This is a big win for the city,” he said. “We’re talking social issues, providing housing, doing it quickly.”

Quickly is especially important for Nuttall and the city, as it works to meet its provincial housing targets. Most municipalities fell short to meet them last year, including Barrie.

However, Barrie did get within 84 per cent of its target, making it one of the few cities to qualify for additional provincial funding.

“What could take two or three weeks or two or three months, happening in two to three days, nothing that we do at city hall will ever compete with that type of revolutionary change,” Nuttall added.

EBS Global said it wants to work with governments and charities to provide social, affordable and mid-rise housing solutions.

The company intends to grow its workforce to over 500 employees in the future.