Regional focus prompts name change for northern Ontario home builders association

Sudbury & District Home Builders’ Association has been renamed the Northern Ontario Home Builders’ Association to better represent its regional membership.

For years, the work of the home builders’ association in Sudbury has expanded beyond the city.

A new name change better reflects that broader service area.

“To better represent really where we’re coming from in Sudbury as well as the other northern Ontario communities to really have our position understood,” said Anthony Farrugia, Chair of the Northern Ontario Home Builders’ Association (NOHBA).

Formerly known as the Sudbury & District Home Builders’ Association, NOHBA represents members within the residential building sector across the region.

Advocacy for northern challenges a key driver

Farrugia said the change reflects their years of growth, expanded partnerships and the variety of residential construction members they serve, like builders, renovators and suppliers.

He told CTV News this change will help with future advocacy to the provincial government since southern Ontario representatives don’t always understand challenges specific to northern Ontario.

“A lot of the unique and individual challenges of northern Ontario aren’t always voiced more represented through individuals with lived northern Ontario experience,” Farrugia said.

“We’ve struggled for quite a while to have some of these issues heard, although advocacy efforts have been obviously made.”

Those challenges include training and retention of skilled trades workers and the costly transportation of personnel, equipment and/or materials.

“All those types of things are a little bit more costly in northern Ontario, take longer to arrive, have less options as far as utilization of existing infrastructure to actually transport those things to site,” Farrugia said.

Looking to expand regional representation

According to Farrugia, several other home builders’ associations in the region, like North Bay and Thunder Bay, are looking to join them.

“There are other local smaller communities as well where we have existing members that don’t have active associations that we’re looking to also represent better,” he said.

“Because unfortunately just saying Sudbury & District Home Builders Association isn’t really representative of where our membership base is actually from right now or where our community partners are established,” Farrugia added.

Officials with the organization said the name change is more than “just a rebrand.”

Farrugia called it a reflection of the association’s commitment to northern Ontario communities and the home building industry and is meant to strengthen their unified voice across the region.

“OHBA is proud to work with members across northern Ontario,” said Scott Andison, the CEO of the Ontario Home Builders Association, in an email to CTV News.

“We recognize that northern Ontario plays an important role in addressing the housing crisis and know that the strong representation of the board at the newly renamed Northern Ontario Home Builders Association will deliver that strong leadership,” the organization continued.