A seven-storey apartment block in Winnipeg will test a single-exit stair design intended to clear one of the biggest regulatory barriers to mid-rise timber housing, among 56 projects sharing close to C$130 million in new federal funding. That is according to Natural Resources Canada, with Energy and Natural Resources Minister Tim Hodgson confirming the package on 3 June as the centrepiece of a wider forest-sector transformation.
The $1 million Bond Tower, designed by Winnipeg firm 5468796 Architecture, will use a hybrid prefabricated mass timber system to cut construction time and cost across its 24 units. Natural Resources Canada expects the demonstrator to prove a replicable model for affordable urban housing whilst holding to fire-safety standards.
A larger $4.8 million grant will help Intelligent City build a Greater Toronto Area factory capable of producing up to 1,000 mass timber housing units a year through robotics and automated design. The facility is intended to shorten construction timelines and strengthen an all-Canadian supply chain for prefabricated timber components.
Both projects sit within a package that follows the Canadian Forest Sector Transformation Task Force, launched on 19 January and reporting on 16 April within a 90-day mandate to stabilise and retool the sector. Forest ministers will weigh its recommendations at the Canadian Council of Forest Ministers meeting in Langford, British Columbia, from 3 to 5 June.
It comes as Ottawa provides an additional $400 million to Canada’s Regional Development Agencies, including $300 million for a Regional Tariff Response Initiative for small and medium-sized firms and $100 million for a fund targeting regions hit hardest by forest-sector disruption. Industry Minister Mélanie Joly said the measures would help companies continue operating, pivot to new markets and strengthen our economic resilience.
The Business Development Bank of Canada will separately enhance its Softwood Lumber Loan Guarantee Program with higher maximum loan amounts, and will launch two new direct loan programs spanning harvesting and pulp and paper. The forest sector supports close to 200,000 workers, including more than 11,000 Indigenous people, and contributes over $20 billion to the national GDP.
Ottawa has now introduced more than $2 billion in measures to defend and transform the sector since August 2025, including a $500 million renewal of its transformation programs, as the industry absorbs US trade action and tightening fibre supply. Two of the larger new grants back export expansion, with $14.9 million for the Canada Wood Group targeting demand in Japan, South Korea and China.
BC Forestry Innovation Investment will take a further $13.1 million to advance regulatory alignment in China, India, Vietnam, the United Kingdom and Europe. The single largest grant, $37 million, went to the Forest Enhancement Society of BC to redirect low-value and residual fibre that would otherwise be burned towards pulp, bioenergy and pellet production.
Daiken North America will retrofit its Huntsville, Ontario, plant with $7.5 million to produce a next-generation engineered wood panel from underused poplar. A separate $4.5 million project by Xylo-carbone in Saint-Tite, Quebec, will adapt pyrolysis to produce a biocarbon composite that could replace up to 50,000 tonnes of fossil coal each year, including in silicon production.
Indigenous-led and community projects run from a $1.11 million upgrade to the Papasay facility at Sand Point First Nation in Ontario to a $510,000 commissioning of the Tackipotcikan mill in Wemotaci, Quebec. Hodgson said Canada’s forests were the foundation for good jobs, affordable housing and sustainable economic growth.
Natural Resources Canada confirmed the $130 million package will be followed by an Action Plan and a forthcoming Forest Sector Strategy, once forest ministers conclude their Langford talks on 5 June.
