REPORT

Meet Kevin Lee
Chief Executive Officer,
Canadian Home Builders’ Association

By Judy Penz Sheluk
Photo By: Natasha Rombough

A professional engineer with a Masters in Architecture, Kevin Lee has worked in the housing industry for 25 years, bringing a wealth of experience and knowledge in housing policy, technology and business to the CEO position at CHBA. Recently we sat down with Kevin to find out a bit more about his plans for the Association.

Home BUILDER Magazine: You’ve had some time to visit many of the HBAs across the country. What is your impression of the CHBA and its impact on members at the grass roots level?
Kevin Lee: It has been a real pleasure to visit with members across the country. CHBA is an organization of passionate and caring professionals looking to advance the industry and the Association to the benefit of all Canadians. At the grassroots level, our members face many challenges locally, and our local associations work hard to help members address these issues. But many of these challenges have causes or solutions that must be addressed at the provincial or national level. That is where we come in, and that is the strength of CHBA—by being an organization at the local, provincial and national levels, we can leverage our strengths and work together to ensure success for the businesses of our members.

HBM: As someone new to the organization, you bring with you expertise from past experience, as well as fresh perspective. What sort of changes can we expect to see from CHBA, how will they be implemented, and why are these changes important?
KL: I am pleased to report that on October 26, 2013, the CHBA’s Board of Directors carefully reviewed and then approved our Strategic Directions 2014 report, which sets important new directions for the Association with respect to governance and operations: directions that position us for success. CHBA is the voice of the residential construction industry, and the key theme of Strategic Directions 2014 is strengthening that voice.
We will do that through strong collaboration across all three levels of the association, and we are pleased to see great momentum with respect to that already. Strengthening our voice will include an increased emphasis on government relations—the exercise itself of developing Strategic Directions 2014 has already started this shift. In the past two weeks alone, CHBA has been invited to the Speech from the Throne (a first for the Association) and to present at the inaugural meeting of a new Conservative Housing Caucus of Federal Members of Parliament. The Caucus is dedicated to having a strong and vibrant housing industry to ensure Canada’s long-term economic prosperity. We also had many Members of Parliament attend our Fall Meetings in Ottawa, including the Minister of Citizenship and Immigration, Chris Alexander. The residential construction industry represents some 845,000 jobs and over $120 billion in economic activity. It is therefore imperative that our voice always be heard on Parliament Hill on all policies that affect our industry; our new emphasis on strengthened government relations is already beginning to ensure that that is the case.

HBM: Like any national organization, CHBA faces many challenges, including running a truly national association. What do you believe are the primary challenges for members, and how do you plan to address them?
KL: Every region of Canada faces challenges locally that are at times somewhat unique, but most issues facing the residential construction industry have a great deal of commonality from coast to coast. Development charges that unduly drive up costs and severely impact affordability are a good example of a local issue that members face across the country. By working together at the national level, we can help each other address these types of issues, leveraging our collective strengths. In addition to undertaking research to document the severe impact development charges are having across the country, CHBA national is bringing this to the attention to the Federal Government, where related issues like infrastructure funding and mortgage rules can alleviate or compound the problem, depending on which way policies are implemented. To bolster awareness of this issue, the CHBA Board of Directors also passed a motion at our Fall Meetings to develop a detailed national communications strategy and action plan to convey common messages about the adverse impacts on housing affordability of development-related taxes, fees, and charges at federal, provincial and local levels. Working together at all three levels, we can tackle these issues with much more force.

HBM: So what’s next for you and CHBA?
KL: Our Fall Meetings were a great success. We had tremendous engagement from our representatives from coast to coast, and together we set strong new directions. The meetings were also streamlined and action oriented to ensure we make full use of our tremendous volunteer base. We have set the table for CHBA to strengthen its position as the leading proponent on all issues affecting housing affordability and choice. Together we will use our strengthened voice to support our members so they can build and renovate the great communities we are so proud as Canadians to call home. I am thrilled to be working with this great association and the passionate and talented people that make up its membership and staff across Canada. What’s next for me and CHBA: with our 8,500 member organizations speaking with one strong coordinated voice, just you wait and see!