B.C. has long had some of Canada’s worst housing challenges. The province is home to only about 14 per cent of Canada’s population, yet it has three of the country’s four most expensive rental markets. …It makes sense, then, that British Columbians are producing innovative approaches to approving, designing and building housing. …The lagging productivity of Canadian construction has long been a source of frustration for Peter Moonen, national sustainability manager with the Canadian Wood Council. He believes prefabricated timber components can help B.C. and Canada build more quickly, sustainably, and cost-effectively. …Moonen points to a new facility in the West Kootenay, where a fourth-generation family business called Kalesnikoff, which started as a forestry company in 1939, is producing modular mass timber components for housing. …This kind of modular manufacturing is between 30 and 50 per cent faster than traditional residential construction methods, Kalesnikoff says, and 10 to 20 per cent cheaper.