Toronto, April 02, 2019 (GLOBE NEWSWIRE) -- The Building Industry and Land Development Association (BILD) launched its Building Answers campaign today to answer the top questions that GTA residents have about housing and development in a public, open and factual manner. The campaign will initially run for six weeks and GTA residents are encouraged to visit BuildingAnswers.ca to see responses to the top 24 questions as well as ask the industry their own questions.
“With 115,000 new people calling the GTA their home every year and the population expected to grow by 40 per cent to 9.7 million by 2041, development and housing construction is highly visible throughout the region,” said David Wilkes, President and CEO of BILD. “It’s natural for residents to have questions and want to understand the changes they are seeing in and around their communities. As the industry that builds the places where people live, work and play, we are committed to facilitating an informed discussion.”
The top 24 questions were sourced from residents who participated in a public opinion poll conducted by IPSOS*. A panel of industry professionals was then enlisted to answer those questions. The BuildingAnswers.ca website will engage members of the public and provide them with an opportunity to submit their own questions. BILD has committed to answering individual questions within two business days. Should the same (or substantially the same) question be submitted 10 times, the question will be published on the site.
“BILD receives many inquiries on a regular basis from members of the public about housing and development in their communities,” said Wilkes. “The Building Answers campaign will allow the industry to engage as many people as possible and answer as many questions as possible. When you allow people to be part of the discussion and share information, you allow them to be part of the solution,” added Wilkes.
To raise awareness of the BuildingAnswers.ca site, a six-week awareness and communications campaign features a “take-over” of the Gardiner Expressway video boards, live CP24 call-in segment and high impact print placements in major Toronto publications. Residents can also expect to see and hear it on television, radio, print, digital and social media, transit shelters, and billboards across the region. BILD worked with empathy marketing agency Republic to develop and execute the campaign.
“Now is the time for an open and factual discussion on development in the GTA given the generational challenge of housing supply and affordability,” said Wilkes. “This campaign will allow everyone to participate in the dialogue about what our region will look like.”
With 1,500 member companies, BILD is the voice of the home building, land development and professional renovation industry in the Greater Toronto Area. The building and renovation industry provides $33 billion in investment value and employs 271,000 people in the region. BILD is proudly affiliated with the Ontario and Canadian Home Builders' Associations.
*These are the findings of an Ipsos poll conducted on behalf of BILD from December 13 to 20, 2018. For the survey, a sample of n = 885 Canadians living in the 416 and 905 were interviewed via the Ipsos I-Say panel and non-panel sources. Quotas and weighting were employed to ensure that the survey sample reflects the population parameters of the GTA according to census information. The accuracy of Ipsos online polls is measured using a credibility interval. In this case, the results are considered accurate to within +/- 3.8 percentage points, 19 times out of 20, of what the results would be had all residents of the GTA been polled.
-30-
For additional information or to schedule an interview, contact John Provenzano, BILD Communications and Media Relations Manager, at JProvenzano@bildgta.ca, (416) 617-7994.
Attachment