A contracting company working in remote First Nations says one solution to the housing crisis impacting many communities is to renovate what’s already there.

Many remote communities have homes that are vacant, said James Gillingham, the president of Total Construction Management and Consultants Inc.

Gillingham’s company is working in a number of remote communities, and fixes up existing buildings for its employees to stay in. Once work is complete, the home is then turned back to the First Nation for its members, he said.

 “These houses still have good bones. And, they can be renovated for half the price of buying a new home,” he said.

“When we do renovate them, we turn them into a little more green, and a better product,” he said, referring to upgrades in insulation, windows, metal roofs and insulated basements.

Gillingham said renovating existing structures will put a good dent in the built-up demand for housing in remote communities. He said when new homes are shipped into remote communities they don’t always function as designed.

“By the time they go up the ice roads or cross the roads to them, they need to be put onto a foundation there’s very little green product going into them,” he said, referring to the environmental impact of shipping homes and the materials used to build them.

“It just doesn’t work when the tractor trailer hauls them in they’re banged up, they’re cracked.”

Gillingham points to the success of a home at Pine Creek First Nation in Manitoba.

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