Premier David Eby Directs $160 Million to Accelerate BC Mass Timber Modular Housing Construction

VANCOUVER — British Columbia Premier David Eby and Minister of Housing Ravi Kahlon announced on Monday the distribution of $160 million in provincial housing innovation grants through the BC Mass Timber Action Plan and the BC Builds program to publish standardized pre-approved mass timber building designs and provide municipal development grants to accelerate construction of 18-story wooden workforce residential towers in Vancouver, Victoria, Kelowna, and Prince George.

The initiative implements recent updates to the BC Building Code permitting encapsulated mass timber construction up to 18 stories (up from 12 stories), using engineered Cross-Laminated Timber (CLT) and glue-laminated beams manufactured in British Columbia sawmills to replace carbon-intensive concrete and structural steel.

Building Beautiful, Low-Carbon Homes 40% Faster Than Concrete Mass timber panels are precision-cut using CNC computer modeling in factory environments before being transported to job sites, where prefabricated components fit together like Lego blocks, cutting on-site construction timelines by up to 40 percent while producing a fraction of the neighborhood noise and heavy truck traffic.

"British Columbia is facing a housing shortage, and we must innovate to build homes faster, cheaper, and more sustainably for our middle-class families," Premier David Eby said during an announcement at an active mass timber construction site in Vancouver. "By pre-approving standardized mass timber designs and investing $160 million in municipal infrastructure grants, we are slashing months off building permit reviews, supporting our domestic forestry workers, and building thousands of beautiful, climate-friendly homes that middle-income families can actually afford."

Mass Timber Housing Packages Funded The $160 million program includes:

• Standardized Open-Source Mass Timber Blueprints: $25 million to develop pre-approved architectural and engineering plans for 6-to-18-story residential buildings.
• 20 Municipal Mass Timber Infrastructure Grants: $100 million for local municipalities expediting site utilities, water mains, and sidewalks for mass timber workforce developments.
• Mass Timber Trades Certification & Apprenticeships: $35 million partnering with the British Columbia Institute of Technology (BCIT) to train 1,200 carpenters and crane riggers in prefabricated timber assembly.

Architects, building trades labor unions, and municipal mayors praised the provincial funding, highlighting that factory-prefabricated mass timber revitalizes B.C.'s value-added forestry sector while accelerating affordable housing delivery.