Men of steel: island entrepreneurs making steel building components.

• Author: Kelly, Lindsay
• Position: DESIGN-BUILD

When it comes to construction in the North, Jib Turner is asking builders and developers to consider light-gauge steel as a viable alternative to wood. "It's lighter, it's cheaper, it's faster and it doesn't wick water or any moisture, so there's no mould," said Turner, president of Northern Metal Framing Ltd., a subsidiary of Kilganan Group Ltd. "So it's a tremendous building product."

Since April, Turner, his partner, Frank LaCrosse, and their team of five have been manufacturing light-gauge steel building components from their 7,000-square-foot plant in Little Current on Manitoulin Island. Built in Canada. the steel-roll forming machine can process up to 9,000 feet of flat steel per hour, enough material to supply 10 houses.

The Northern Ontario Heritage Fund chipped in $125,000 for the purchase of equipment, which makes roof trusses, floor trusses, wall panels and curtain walls.

"They have machines like this that come from China and they're not nearly as tough," Turner said. "They're built very cheaply and they cost a lot more to run, so we're really lucky to get it."

Northern Metal Framing is targeting land developers and commercial and industrial builders who are looking for a lightweight, non-combustible and cheaper option to wood. Steel framing requires fewer people to install, requires less material, and can be used in buildings higher than six stories. The cost is up to 20 per cent cheaper than a building using wood.

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Complementing that part of the business is the modular home construction division, which is concentrated on affordable housing for seniors and on-and off-reserve First Nations residents. Building components are constructed separately and then pieced together on-site.

Two homes have already been erected in Little Current and components for another two await shipment to nearby Espanola. An average 980-square-foot home featuring three bedrooms and one bathroom retails for $189,000 and can be heated for less than $100 a month.

"For retirement, it's perfect," Turner said. "It's on one level, and there are no steps."

Steel components also travel well, he added, so they're ideal for shipping to communities in the far north, which have notoriously had problems with illness and deterioration due to mould.

Hailing from a prominent Manitoulin Island family, which established itself on the Island more than a century ago, Turner is the current proprietor at Turners' of Little Current department store. The...