Addressing Barriers to Insurance and Financing with Mass Timber

Why insurance and financing?

Despite its longstanding presence in B.C. and Canada’s construction industry, challenges with establishing mass timber as a viable and economic choice persist. Our engagement with stakeholders over the past year consistently highlighted insurance and financing as critical issues for this sector, also underscoring the significant lack of cross-sector collaboration on addressing these challenges.

What are we doing?

We are leveraging our role and unique position as a credible convener in this sector to bring together multistakeholder groups and industries to address challenges and co-develop insurance and financing options better adapted for the unique context, characteristics and needs of mass timber projects in B.C. and Canada. 

We will share the knowledge and solutions identified through our engagements into a solutions and best practices guide that will be shared across key stakeholder networks and organizations.

Why are we doing it?

Insurance makes up an increasing share of mass timber project costs. By reducing barriers to insurance and financing, this phase of work will create a more enabling context for greater uptake of mass timber developments across B.C. and Canada, contributing to creating more equitable, livable and resilient communities.

Since 2021, we have successfully undertaken multiple stages of work to help create a more enabling environment for prefabricated mass timber construction in B.C., including engaging with B.C. municipalities, the development sector, manufacturers and key professions to better understand and solve policy and regulatory barriers to the delivery of this building form.