THUNDER BAY — It was November of 2019 when Bill Bolton moved his Smart Modular Canada company into their new location on Haniak Road and continued production on modular homes.
After being in the modular business for more than 17 years, Bolton said he had been trying to open a factory for four years before he found this site.
"We started in the small end of the building with 20,000 square feet," he said. "We had more orders than our current suppliers from across Canada and some of the United States could supply, and that was before COVID."
Bolton said they would look down to the other end of the building in Thunder Bay and wonder how they would ever utilize all the space.
"Within six months, we had the whole building filled, and it's been going fairly strong ever since," he said.
Today, Smart Modular Canada operates out of 76,000 square feet, producing 14 houses at a time.
Most of the modular homes are built for clients in 25 northern First Nation communities.
Among the challenges to finding the right space for the production facility, the growing company faced staff shortages during the pandemic.
"It was very difficult to operate, but we managed to pull it off," he said, adding now we've grown a very good, strong professional team of 43 tradespeople. We have all the trades under one roof here, and we encourage apprenticeships whenever we can."
Bolton said the "trick" is to try and repeat certain designs over and over again.
"That helps us with our buying power, with our efficiencies, that helps us to reduce costs and still put out a strong, wonderful home," he said.
The company has built multifamily homes, apartment buildings, hotels, row housing, townhouses, commercial buildings, schools, gas stations, and office buildings. Each structure is completed, loaded onto a transport truck and transported to the client.
"They are finished, and even the towel racks are up. The flooring is done, ceiling and walls are painted, lights are installed, and the plumbing is connected, and it's ready to plug in," Bolton said.
In March, Prime Minister Justin Trudeau visited Bolton's facility and announced a $20.7-million investment aimed at fast-tracking the construction of more than 600 new housing units in the next three years.
Bolton says the money will help the city by moving some of the roadblocks out of the way.
"We could build an apartment building in about three to six months, depending on the size, but it might take three and a half years to get the permit," Bolton pointed out. "If they want affordable housing, 6,500 homes over the next decade, things need to change or won't happen. Part of that change is that the whole group needs to work together — the contractors, realtors, the city, the province, the federal government, and complexes like ours all have a role to play in it. We all need to get together and work together as a team."
Bolton added that they are trying to work with Thunder Bay Mayor Ken Boshcoff to put together a team and have those discussions.
The Chronicle Journal / Local Journalism Initiative
