Collège Boréal secures new funds to support research in Northern Ontario
Monday, October 14, 2022 – Sudbury – Collège Boréal
Funding provided by the Natural Sciences and Engineering Research Council of Canada (NSERC) through the Mobilize grant program and the College and Community Innovation program will allow Collège Boréal to pursue its research endeavours in social innovation and to support industry and community needs.
Tiny Homes as an affordable housing solution in Northern Ontario
A new collaboration between Collège Boréal, the City of Greater Sudbury, and the Tiny Town Association aims to study the feasibility of tiny homes as a housing option in Northern Ontario.
This 3-year applied research project will help design and build a tiny home prototype and evaluate its effectiveness as a sustainable, affordable, and eco-responsible housing option in Northern Ontario. The knowledge developed throughout the project will be published as a best practice guide for municipalities or organisations interested in exploring tiny home living within their communities
“Tiny Town Association, a Federal not-for-profit corporation, is delighted to partner with Collège Boréal on this project. We believe the results of the study are key to incorporating best practices in design and environmental and code requirements to develop the potential of tiny homes as sustainable, supportive, and affordable rapid housing across Canada. The knowledge generated by the project will not only create new tools, resources, and capacity regarding tiny homes, it will provide policy and decision-makers practical solutions and a set of evidence-based recommendations to help address Canada’s affordable housing crisis.”
- Ed Peterson, Director, Tiny Town Association
“We are pleased to partner with College Boreal to help provide better access to safe, affordable, attainable, and suitable housing options in Greater Sudbury. The findings of this project will help guide us as we continue to explore options that benefit residents’ changing housing needs. The focus on secondary dwelling units is a key component to the City’s Community Energy and Emissions Plan (CEEP) goal of creating compact, complete communities”
- Tony Cecutti, General Manager, Infrastructure Services, City of Greater Sudbury
Collège Boréal acquires 1M in funding to support research initiatives
This long-term funding will support college-wide research projects focused on the needs of the college’s partners for the next 5 years.
Collège Boréal has established applied research strengths in agriculture, aquaculture, forestry, biodiversity, welding, and electronics prototyping, as well as in multidisciplinary social innovation including early-childhood education, immigration and interdisciplinary francophone health services. These projects represent significant collaborations with both industry and community partners as the college continues to expand its research activities to meet their needs. Applied research activities represent an important avenue for skills development and will help these industries meet their pressing workforce needs.
“These funds will not only enhance the college’s ability to quickly respond to emerging business innovation needs, but they will also complement and augment the training and learning opportunities for students enrolled at Collège Boréal.”
- Daniel Leduc, Dean of Trades and Technology, Collège Boréal
SEE THE ONLINE PRESS RELEASE HERE
Information :
Marc Despatie
Direction – communications
Cellulaire : 705-665-2662
I love this. I am looking down the road to retirement and I’d love to downsize to something like this. Lower my utility and taxes and reduce maintenance and upkeep costs.
Sudbury needs this.
I truly agree. Cannot wait to see how it all pans out.
I love this initiative and I am excited at the prospect of such communities popping up around Sudbury.
This is fantastic for retirees who wish to remain independent but lower the maintenance work and cost.
I would certainly invest in one of these should the tiny neighbourhood be in a safe and favourable area.
Hi Julie! We’re glad you are excited about this! We also see the need for this model for many sectors at risk, beyond the homeless. Seniors, veterans, immigrants, disabled, indigenous, students, single moms/dads, startup ups, etc!
Love this project for so many different reasons. It’s a definite need here in the Sudbury area.
We agree! So many regions are interested in this Tiny Town initiative. We’re sort of just starting out ourselves, even though collectively researched and advocated for this for many years! The goal is to be able to facilitate Transformational Housing for the homeless to in-town pocket neighbourhoods to larger Villages on and off-grid!
How do we become a part of this endeavor. My name is Iain from Surface Design & Decor. We would be able to provide flooring and installation, at a very reasonable cost. Please contact me at any time if there is anything we can help with.
Hi Iain, We appreciate your offer and interest! When we get to building homes, we will be looking for partnering suppliers. Please keep in touch.
I have been looking into these tiny homes for years. They can do it in the USA and other parts of the world. Some are mobile and you can take them with you if you move out of town/city/country.
It would be really helpful. I could never afford a house of my own. But this is much more appealing. Some people are using storage containers. I ahve been viewing websites for a long time wiht this. I get ideas, but then have to remember, “we can’t do that here.”
We are working with others in the field to fix the “we can’t do this here” problem. More and more pilot projects are happing and some are into full-fledged operations but generally tied to homeless or marginal needs. We think this is a great place to start as it addresses those in great need! But as we all know, the need for a new affordable home model is huge. Thanks for your interest. Please keep following as a new site is in the works that we hope will inspire more people to jump on board. Our draft mission is “To positively impact people’s lives by offering beautiful, permanently affordable and environmentally sustainable micro-housing, developed through a lens of wellness and community-centric living spaces.”