kamloops this week - chba

Canadian Home Builders’

Association

Celebrat

ing

MembersFrom Your

THE CANADIAN HOME BUILDERS CENTRAL INTERIOR ARE CELEBRATING 50 YEARS!PRESENTS THIS SPECIAL KEEPSAKE

www.kamloopsthisweek.com B2 TUESDAY, May 5, 2015

CHBA 50 YEARS

This year’s TRU Training House has been built in the neigh-bourhood of

Juniper West, a planned community with spec-tacular views of the city and river valley and only minutes from many of Kamloops main amenities.

This is the first time Juniper West has been selected by the CHBA-Central Interior as the loca-tion for the training house, which has been designed as two-story, energy efficient home that offers unob-structed, scenic views from both the front and the back of the home.

As in previous years, it has been handed over to the Kamloops Y to be raffled off as the 2015 Y Dream Home.

“We’re excited to be involved in this partnership, which highlights innova-tive homebuilding design, brings value to our commu-nity as a whole and allows Juniper West to showcase all the benefits of this growing neighbourhood,” said Doug

Mackenzie, project man-ager at Juniper West.

The relationship among the CHBA-CI, the Y Dream Home and local builders has been a long and suc-cessful one, with numerous individuals and organiza-tions stepping up to donate time, materials and funding to make the partnership a success.

The training-home proj-ect allows first-year resi-dential construction and other trades program stu-dents at Thompson Rivers University to be involved in hands-on building experi-ences. Students undertake the foundation, framing and rough in work.

The home is then fin-ished with the support of CHBA CI members.

The Y has been involved in the partnership for 19 years, as the home has become the focal point for its major Dream Home Lottery fundraiser, which gives back in a variety of ways to members of the community through its many programs.

Bert Gatien of Juniper Realty, which is the real-es-

tate broker for Juniper West, said community involve-ment through Juniper Realty and Juniper West is important and fits well with the collaboration required for the successful training house initiative.

Gatien said that because the Y Dream Home has been in different neighbourhoods over the years, the home has been able to highlight different parts of our city.

“The Y Dream Home is something special. People who have not been up to Juniper recently will be impressed with the new road and all the new development occurring in Juniper West,” he said.

Gaiten and the realtors at Juniper Realty are look-ing forward to showcasing Juniper West and to sup-porting the Y in their efforts to have a successful Y Dream Home for 2015.

The neighbourhood has been developed to appeal to a variety of homeowners.

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Juniper West is proud to be part of the CHBA-CI. Congratulations on 50 years!

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www.kamloopsthisweek.com TUESDAY, May 5, 2015 B3

50YEARMEMBER

Bill Bilton would like to congratulate the CHBA on 50 YEARS!

Bill has been the longest continually serving member of the CHBA and takes pride in these associated business ventures:

The Dunes at Kamloops

Bill Bilton has been amember since DAY 1!

-Canadian Home Builders Association

“Lifetime Community Builder Award“

CHBA 50 YEARS

Bill Bilton was working closely with Frank Hewlett when he got the CHBA-CI off the ground in 1965, and he’s still a member today.

DAVE EAGLES PHOTO

Bill Bilton credits Tom Kerr for teaching him to speak.

Not just regular conver-

sation, obviously, but being comfortable standing in front of a crowd that could number more than 1,000 and sim-ply talk about something or answer questions.

The story goes back to when Bilton was in high school and Kerr — who went on to create what is now known as Western Canada Theatre — was a teacher.

Bilton was a jock back then, playing every sport except hockey — “I couldn’t skate,” he says. He was also pretty busy with a part-time job in construction. Kerr was get-ting ready to direct a play and needed a set built.

He reached out to Bilton, asking him if he and his bud-dies could get the job done.

They did and, the next thing

he knew, Bilton was sitting in one of Kerr’s theatre classes.

“And he told me to speak. He made me speak,” Bilton says. “I learned to speak.”

Bilton and some of his bud-dies continued building sets for Kerr, sometimes travelling out of the province to festivals where some of Kerr’s plays were being presented and judged. It led to a friendship that has lasted through the years.

Sitting in the clubhouse of his golf course, The Dunes at Kamloops, Bilton points to the way it has been designed, a layout influenced by all of those theatre experiences.

Another designer played a significant role in Bilton’s long-time career in the building industry, a man known more for his work with grass, earth

and water than bricks and mortar.

Back in 1978, Bilton began work on what became Rivershore, a community built around a golf course. Robert Trent Jones was hired to design the 18 holes nestled between the sagebrush-covered hills and the South Thompson River.

“Three years working with Robert Trent Jones,” Bilton says. “It was the best time of my working life. To meet him was something else alto-gether.”

Bilton got his start working in the family plumbing and heating business.

Then something changed. “I decided I wanted to be a

contractor,” he said.

‘I decided I wanted to be a contractor’

Bill Bilton has been building Kamloops for 50 years

See BILTON, page 11

‘THIS WAS IMPORTANT’Turn to Page 11 to read the CHBA-CI’s origin story, as told by Bill Bilton


CHBA 50 YEARS

During his second year at the helm, Matt McCurrach is happy

to see the Canadian Home Builders’ Association Central Interior (CHBA-CI) maintaining its focus on builder-related issues.

The member-driven association, which acts as the voice of the residential-building sector, lobbies all three levels of government to address concerns its members might have.

When McCurrach, of Homex Development Corporation, became presi-dent after five years on the board, he said the main goal was to streamline the asso-ciation’s efforts.

“I think we wanted to put our stamp on things,” he said.

“We wanted to be taken seriously in the community.

“As an association, I think we’re the biggest economic driver of a private industry in our region.

“Our GDP is $90 million in this region annually and we want to make sure our voice is heard.”

While the association has addressed a variety of concerns — such as Canada Post’s move to implement a $200 per mailbox fee on new home buyers, in which he CHBA successfully lobbied to have the fee deferred in

hopes of having it elimi-nated — its main focus is housing affordability.

CHBA-CI meets regu-larly with the city to discuss development cost charges and increases that can be costly to the industry.

More recently, fees for dumping construction waste have increased, almost tri-pling the 2014 rates.

Even changes to the B.C. Building Code were expected to bring costs up for builders.

“It’s becoming harder and harder to build afford-able houses and so that’s what we’re trying to get back to government at all three levels, that this is a prob-lem,” McCurrach said.

“They can’t just use

Keeping the focusHousing affordability is the main priority: CHBA-CI president

Canadian Home Builders’ Association Central Interior president Matt McCurrach in front of Homex Development’s townhouse development Ora Bella at Hidden Trails in Dufferin.

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CHBA 50 YEARS

Like father, like sonMuch has changed since Peter

McCurrach sat as president at the CHBA’s monthly dinner meetings.

When Homex Development Corporation became a member of the Kamloops Builders’ Association in 1970, the 35 members met at Harold’s Family Restaurant in Val-leyview.

“That’s when I started building and I just kept on building,” McCur-rach said.

The senior McCurrach has built well over 1,000 residential units in Kamloops — from duplexes in North Kamloops to single-family homes in Sahali and Du� erin.

“At that time, most of it was comradeship,” he said of the as-sociation. “It wasn’t as business-oriented as it is today. It was very informal.”

He was president in 1974 and had a hand in founding the long-standing golf tournament and bringing the New Home Warranty Program to the city.

He believes the � rst house built

in the province under the new war-ranty was in Batchelor. In the early 1970s, the association became in-volved with the provincial branch of the Housing and Urban Devel-opment Association of Canada — an earlier name for the CHBA.

McCurrach insists the associa-tion o� ers much more to builders now, however.

“Having a permanent organiza-tion, the builders are much better informed as to what is going on. I think that is the biggest thing,” he said. “They get so much feedback from the organizations that deal with the house-building industry.”

The camaraderie isn’t lost, though. Son Matt McCurrach, cur-rent president, said networking is one of the organization’s biggest strengths.

“It’s one of those things that it’s hard to imagine you would ever see a son up as president of an association, but he’s doing a good job,” Peter McCurrach said. “It’s exciting to see him there.”

it as a cash cow.”McCurrach said govern-

ment does respond — and listens.

He sits on the provincial board and the national body of the association is involved in Ottawa.

For home buyers, the association offers a level of credibility they can rely on when working with any one of its members, McCurrach said.

The members — which include institutions, banks, brokers and sub-trades — take advantage of courses on building codes, financing and legalities of the industry.

The association is seeing success in its other endeav-ours — its annual golf tour-nament sells out every year, it brought Ron MacLean to town for its yearly spe-cial speaker series and the Y Dream Home/training house tickets are in high-de-mand under the partnership with the YMCA-YWCA.

It recently partnered with Interior Community Services for a new initiative that will see youth at risk of homelessness, and those coming out of the foster-care system, get the oppor-tunity to find employment and mentorship with CHBA-CI members.

McCurrach credits both the board and members for the strides the association has made in its 50 years.

“What we do, we try to do very well. I think we’ve accomplished most of those goals,” McCurrach said.

“There’s always room for improvement but, when you have good people, you have good energy.

“That’s what we’ve achieved so far.”

Peter McCurrach and Matt McCurrach at the Canadian Home Builders’ Association Central Interior’s 2014 Milestone Awards, accepting honours for Homex Development Corporation’s dedication as a member.

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CHBA 50 YEARS

Rose Choy’s title is office manager, but it might as well be jack of all trades.

One of her many duties with the Central Interior chapter of the Canadian Home Builders’ Association is to help organize its events.

The association holds nine dinner meetings each year, one of which is the flagship gathering featuring a special-guest speaker.

To celebrate its 50th anniversary in style, the local CHBA chapter brought in Canadian hock-ey icon Ron MacLean, who spoke to a sold-out crowd at the Coast Kamloops Hotel and Conference Centre on March 11.

“All of our meetings are open to the public but, with the special speaker, it draws more of a crowd,” said Choy, who has worked with the association since 2006.

“You don’t see Ron MacLean in Kamloops every day.

“It’s a fundraiser for us and, at the same time, it’s about raising the profile of the association.”

The CHBA is a non-profit, member-driven association.

Past special-guest speakers include Trevor Linden, Mike (Pinball) Clemons, Rex Murphy and Dianne Buckner.

Choy said the annual House and Home Show

is another opportunity to increase the association’s profile and raise money at the same time.

The chapter used this year’s event to determine the winner of its ugly-stove contest.

Local residents sub-mitted photos — 38 were received — to the CHBA of their still-in-use, ugly, energy-hogging stoves.

The top 10 were picked and displayed at the show at the Coast conference centre on March 21.

There were about 1,200 people in attendance, many of whom voted to determine whose stove was the ugliest.

“We’re promoting ener-gy-efficiency and it caught a lot of attention from the community,” Choy said.

Maria Schaaf of Kamloops won the contest and she received a new Frigidaire stove.

Last year, the associa-tion held the same con-test, only it was for ugly fridges.

The chapter also holds a just-for-fun golf tour-nament each year for its members and their guests — the 38th annual tourney tees off on June 19.

“It’s just a fun day for our members, builders and the people in trades,” Choy said.

“I had one member yes-terday come in here and he’s like, ‘That is the one day a year that I schedule off work.’”

Choy has a knack for remembering names and faces — and most mem-bers know her.

“Because I’ve been here for a long time, that’s why I’m the all-around person,” Choy said with a laugh.

“We’re a very small office.”

The association is holding its Awards of Excellence event at the Coast on May 13.

To learn more about the association and its events, call Choy at 250-828-1844 or go online to chbaci.ca.

Celebrating 50: MacLean and more

ROSE CHOY:CHBA-CI office manager

Monthly dinners and annual events bring membership together

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CHBA 50 YEARS

Cabinet man-ufacturing firm Excel Industries has a his-tory in

Kamloops that’s inter-twined with the Canadian homebuilders.

Excel founder Enzo Lizzi moved to Kamloops in 1965 from Lethbridge, where he immigrated to from his native Italy.

While today the firm manufactures kitchen cabinets and bathroom vanities from its North Kamloops complex, Lizzi began here building houses as Excel Homes, along with partner August Zinetti.

The two also dabbled in pasta-making; millwork was done as a side busi-ness.

The partners from Lethbridge originally planned to look as far as north as Prince George after becoming interested

in moving to Premier W.A.C. Bennett’s booming B.C.

“We never got farther than Kamloops,” Enzo said.

“We were told there’s as much work as you want.”

Many of the con-tacts and friendships Lizzi made forming the homebuilders group 50 years ago are still with him today through busi-ness relationships for the respected local firm that focuses on medium- and high-end cabinet making.

“They’re all our cus-tomers,” Lizzi said of the handful of firms and builders who came together as a club in 1965.

Excel has gone through transitions and phases through the years as the Lizzi family adapted to changing market condi-tions.

There have been forays into the California and Alberta markets; Lizzi and

August split their business relationship in 1979, with August taking over Zinetti Pasta and Lizzi staying with cabinet-making — a trade he learned in Italy soon after elementary school.

Today, the firm employs about 40 people in areas including sales and marketing, cabinet making and production.

It has grown by a quarter in the past two decades.

Victor Lizzi, the vice-president, said Excel’s future looks very much like its past: Slow and steady, avoiding the lure of excessive growth and the crashes that come with it.

“The biggest chal-lenge we have right now is replacing people who have been with us for 35 or 40 years,” Victor said.

“Guys 25 to 35 years old — you hope they have that same commitment.”

Excel endured hard times in the early 1980s and has weathered reces-sions that took down cus-tomers and suppliers.

Its customers are friends for decades and the firm itself is a fam-ily affair: Children Victor, Rose and Laura work at Excel (a fourth is a school teacher) while son-in-law Rob Roy also works at the North Kamloops firm.

The company has man-aged to keep its workforce on the job, even through grinding recessions, by keeping them on the job or on layoff no longer than a month.

Excel has not tried to grow too fast, even during boom times when every-one thought it wouldn’t come to an end.

“We’d rather get work and keep people employed and not make as much money on a job,” Victor said.

Excel Industries � ve decades strong

“The biggest challenge we have right now is replacing people who have been with us for 35 or 40 years. Guys 25 to 35 years old — you hope they have that same commitment.”

— VICTOR LIZZI

Enzo Lizzi built the roots of his firm in Kamloops and has grown it into a family affair

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Doug Wittal got his start in construc-tion young, and he’s been going

strong ever since.“It started in 1980, just

right out of high school,” he said.

“It was me being chief-cook-bottle-washer, my wife doing the books.

“I did the building, cleanup — everything.

“Then we started hiring people.”

Today, DW Builders employs 30 people and is one of the most-recognized builders in Kamloops.

And, according to Wittal, a lot of those Keystone Awards and other honours are thanks, in part, to the

leg up provided by the CHBA-CI.

“What CHBA did for me is, it’s a sounding board and it’s an organization where people aren’t afraid to share information,” Wittal said.

“I guess it’s basically a library — a library where people aren’t afraid to share information.

“We share stuff. I don’t tell you how much my per-centage mark-ups are, but you can say, ‘I ran into this issue,’ or, ‘I ran into that issue.’

“If I’ve got a question or an issue, I can ask builders in Kelowna, Prince George, Lethbridge, Regina — all across Canada, really. It’s a huge family.

“I think that’s the great-est advantage.”

Now, Wittal said, it’s all about growing DW Builders to its full potential.

“I hope we get a lot big-ger,” he said.

“We see our company continuing to grow and to expand into other areas out-side the Interior.”

And, for Wittal, the com-pany now has the next gen-eration on board, with his son, Wayne, employed as a supervisor.

“He’s extremely involved in the company,” Wittal said.

“It’s pretty cool. I had nobody to take over. I start-ed from scratch.

“So, having him there makes me pretty proud.”

Wittal’s daughter, Cassie, also spent 10 years with the company before leaving Kamloops to start her own construction career.

Away from the office, Wittal is keeping plenty busy.

In January, he endeav-ours to lead a Discovering World Connections group on a trek to the summit of Mount Kilimanjaro.

“We’re going to raise $100,000 for charity,” he said.

“That’s a cool thing to be a part of, too.”

CHBA 50 YEARS

According to Kamloops builder Doug Wittal, membership in the CHBA-CI gives

companies an advantage in the highly competitive construction market.

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Business from the ground upDoug Wittal ‘started from scratch’

“I hope we get a lot bigger.”

— Doug Wittal

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Kamloops was a much dif-ferent city when Jim Thomson arrived.

The president of Plainsman Construction Services, Thomson moved to Kamloops in 1983, in the middle of the recession of the early 1980s.

Like the rest of Canada, the River City was feeling the pinch in the face of a struggling economy.

“The younger genera-tion forgets how bad the crash was in the mid-80s,” Thomson said.

During that time, some residential interest rates climbed to more than 20 per cent.

“You could drive around town and there was just street upon street of fore-closures.”

With the financial impacts came the societal woes, Thomson said, fami-lies broken up by money stress, domestic issues, sub-stance abuse, even suicide.

It was a darker time in the builder’s history with

the city. While some years his company has averaged 1,200 building starts, he recalls having just 40 in 1984.

Fast-forward more than 30 years and the picture today is much brighter in the Tournament Capital.

For Thompson, who has certainly left his mark on Kamloops — as well as provincially and nationally, having served as president of the Canadian Home Builders’ Association at all levels — it has made for a satisfying career.

And though he has seen a lot of change in his more

than three decades in build-ing, Thomson said a lot has remained the same, too.

Today, just like when he first got started, afford-ability is one of the biggest issues facing builders and homeowners.

There’s more emphasis on quality in home build-ing, Thomson said — both consumers and regulators expect the best in new properties.

It becomes a balancing act, however, as he and his peers try to walk the line between affordability and building requirements.

“You’ve got to have a bal-ance between people being able to afford a home and live in a comfortable, safe, healthy environment, as opposed to making houses so expensive they have a choice between the street and elite homes for the very wealthy,” Thomson said.

“That’s not good housing policy.”

For Thomson, driving the streets of Kamloops brings back a lot of memo-ries. So many of his projects — the building that now houses Save-On Foods, the Zimmer Wheaton car deal-ership, countless homes and commercial buildings — remind him of the role he has played in shaping the city.

Even now, as his com-pany works on Cascades Casino, he continues to leave his mark.

He has always prided himself on doing it the right way, too.

“Its kind of rewarding and it’s nice to be able to walk down the street and look people in the eye, that you’ve done business with, and shake their hand,” Thomson said.

“It’s a good feeling.”

One building, in par-ticular, will always have a special place in his heart — 301 Victoria Street, the downtown home of, among other businesses, TD Bank and McDonald’s.

At the top of the build-ing — a marquee project for the Plainsman — the com-pany’s logo and the year it was completed are etched into the building, a point of pride for Thomson.

Like everything he has built in Kamloops, he expects it will stand the test of time.

“I think our local home-building community can be very proud of the product that we’ve built, com-pared to the peers across Canada,” Thomson said.

“I’ve travelled all across Canada as the national president [of the CHBA] and seen builders in every end of this country and we’re among the best build-ers in the country — and Canada’s one of the best-housed nations in the world.

“We can be very proud of that.”

CHBA 50 YEARS

Thomson building points of pride

JIM THOMSON:Arrived in Kamloops during 1980s recession.

“It’s nice to be able to walk down the street and look people in the eye, that you’ve done business with, and shake their hand.” — Jim Thomson

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CHBA 50 YEARS

THROUGH THE YEARSThe Canadian Home Builders’ Association of the Central Interior is celebrating its 50th anniversary, so we thought it would be fun to take a look at the style trends through the years it’s been in operation . . .

1960

s19

70s

1980

s19

90s

2000

sAh yes, the ‘60s, with sharp edges, bright colours and a look

that could at best be described as moulded functional.

Moving on to the ‘70s and it was colour, baby, psychedelic patterns, designs for no other reason than to just be.

For many, the ‘80s was a time of ugly decor — overstuffed couches, too much floral — and the focal

point of the living room was always the stereo cabinet.

Design trends in the ‘90s can be summed up in a few words — beige and white — with everyone learning to sponge-paint their walls.

It’s a new century and everything old is new again: sharp corners, functional design, but with an eye to Mother Earth when shopping.

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CHBA 50 YEARS

“That was back in the day when there were really just six models built.”

He noticed most build-ers had something unique to their houses, a trademark element. For him, it was boxed-in soffits in the cor-ners of the houses.

“It wasn’t a big thing, but it was my trademark.”

Bilton was the first contractor to build a con-dominium complex in the Interior, encouraged by Dave Davies of the Canada Mortgage and Housing Corp. Within seven months, 119 units Bilton called Valhalla were finished.

“It’s 44 years old, but that project is still good hous-ing,” Bilton says.

The Westsyde Shopping Centre went through an upgrade recently, a project Bilton says he watched with some nostalgia because he constructed it back in the early 1970s.

The Rivershore devel-opment gave him his first taste of the golf business as he worked with designer Jones to create the course along with the housing.

Since then, Bilton says, he’s spent “a fair amount of time in the golfing industry, not because they’re profit-able, but because I like it and did well in building.”

And, while his office is at his golf course, The Dunes at Kamloops, Bilton says he only gets in 15 to 20 rounds a year now — “and I’m the worst golfer in the family.”

Bilton says he’d play more if games took only a couple or hours, something he’s hoping to see start to happen at The Dunes as he rede-signs the tees.

He’s still busy building — the day KTW visited, he had just finished up days of meetings with the Agricultural Land Reserve as he pushes forward to build more houses in Westsyde.

“I put my shoulder to the wheel as much as I can,” he says. “And, without the homebuilders’ association, I wouldn’t have been as successful.”

Bilton credits association

It was 1965 — and Frank Hewlett had an idea.As a busy builder in North Kamloops, he thought it was

important for his industry “to become more professional, rather than just a bunch of guys with hammers,” said Bill Bilton.

At the time, Bilton was working in the family’s plumb-ing and heating business, doing work for Hewlett and other contractors in the area.

“He made it clear to all of us this was important,” Bilton said of the man he credits for creating what is today known as the Canadian Home Builders’ Association-Central Interior.

“It was like a club to start with and we got others to join. Frank was a real organizer and it started to be more of an association to make sure there was credibility for the builders. He wanted it to have a voice with authority.”

Back then, Kamloops didn’t exist as it does today, with North Kamloops, Valleyview, Brocklehurst, Westsyde and Raleigh “all separate but in the district,” Bilton said.

Membership grew from those areas and the associa-tion continued advocating not only for its members, but for the consumers, talking about quality and standards and responsibility to the homebuyers.

“It spread,” Bilton said. “Bob Borrie, he was from Prince George and he was in the federal government back then and he started to spread the word and, somehow, this association [idea] spread throughout the whole province.”

Hewlett wasn’t done, though. Soon, he created the first computer centre in the city, working with city accoun-tants Bernie Kent and Ken Almond to install “this big computer in this massive room. We all could sign on and use it.”

It was a novelty at a time when there were no cellphones, fax machines or laptop computers. “If you wanted copies, you used carbon paper,” Bilton said.

Bilton sees the association’s growth as a credit to build-ers and suppliers taking each year in stride.

“Now, if you’re not a member, you’re out of touch,” Bilton said. “You know, I sit back and think how was it 35 years ago? Fifty years ago? There was a real renaissance in building houses 50 years ago and it seems like it’s been status quo with polish the last 15 years. And, now, we are going through another change. Right now, some [build-ing] standards are changing completely, changing for the better.

“We went through a period of massive houses and, now, we’re more economical, getting the maximum ben-efits in smaller houses.”

‘This was important’

From page 3

“I put my shoulder to the wheel as much as I can. And, without the home-builders’ association, I wouldn’t have been as successful.”

— Bill Bilton

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CHBA 50 YEARS

Members speak

“As a member of the CHBA for the past 20 years, I have always found the association to be an extremely valuable resource and advocate for the industry.”

— JEFF ARNOLD, A&T PROJECT DEVELOPMENTS INC.

“Being a member of CHBA is an integral part of my job. It involves networking, advocacy, leading-edge knowledge, contributing to my community, as well as fun!” — BEV WASSENHUNTER, BMO BANK OF MONTREAL

“Since becoming a member of the CHBA, our company has established many long-lasting connections with professionals in our industry. From both a business and personal standpoint, the networking events, educational seminars and marketing opportunities have been invaluable.”

— DAVE ROBINSON, RIVER CITY ROCK PRODUCTS LTD. & ROBINSON MASONRY

O R A B E L L A . C A

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kamloops this week - chba

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