Modular homes on the move: contractor-First Nation building ready-to-move homes for local market.

• Author: Ross, Ian
• Position: FORESTRY - Moncrief Construction

Kenora's Moncrief Construction and the Wabaseemoong (Whitedog) Independent First Nations are teaming up to make modular homes, now under construction, in a new joint venture enterprise.

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July 3 is the scheduled target for the grand opening of Wincrief Forest Products

The new venture is located in a 15,600-square-foot shop on Redditt Road, just north of Moncrief Construction's existing yard near the Highway 17 bypass.

The new joint venture is 51 per cent owned by Wabaseemoong First Nation.

"We're definitely building for the First Nations, but the target market is basically anyone who needs a home," said Wincrief CEO Greg Moncrief.

"And who knows where it can go from there with winter roads or anyplace else you can drive to."

Marvin McDonald of Wabaseemoong is Wincrief's CEO.

The $2.3 million investment in the new business is expected to supported with additional senior government funding dollars to be announced this summer.

The homes will be typical modular construction with two-by-six walls that can trucked in two halves to a site and set on a foundation.

The company has several different floor plans of three and four-bedrooms.

"Seems like each week there's another floor plan request. The designing has been a time-consuming job," said Moncrief.

Moncrief declined comment on the range of prices, but said their office has been busy fielding calls from organizations looking for quotes.

Since they're built in a factory setting, "Our premise is they're built better and priced lower than homes built on site."

The order book looks solid with eight homes pre-sold and with the first three modular homes moving out the shop's bay door in mid-June.

Moncrief said the Redditt Road shop will be well-equipped with framing tables to construct these homes.

The new venture currently employs a dozen people. The plan is to double the workforce in the next couple of months.

"Most of the people that work here are from the First Nation community. The training and apprenticeships programs are taking place."

First-year projections are to produce between 25 and 30 homes.

The new venture is good news for area forest product mills.

Wincrief is committed to sourcing all the building materials for these homes from Kenora Forest Products, Weyerhaeuser and Domtar's Ear Falls sawmill.

Weyerhaeuser's Timberstand iLevel mill in Kenora is only running two-days-a-week and Kenora Forest Products shut...