‘We need to protect our home first,’ says Mike Holmes Jr. in Fort William First Nation

By Rick Garrick

FORT WILLIAM FIRST NATION—Mike Holmes Jr. encouraged Fort William citizens to build more sustainably and efficiently and to protect the environment during his April 27 presentation at the Fort William First Nation Community Centre.

“We need to start thinking about protecting our home from the outside in, then we can start doing the finishes that suit our needs,” says Holmes Jr., a professional contractor and TV host on shows such as Holmes and Holmes, Holmes: The Next Generation, and Home to Win. “But we need to protect our home first so it is going to last 100-200 years. I would just like to see everyone as a whole start prioritizing their renovations and protecting their investments because the building industry as a whole, if we start focusing on building better, we will see a much less of an impact on our environment. And I think that is something we really need to be concerned about.”

Holmes Jr. encouraged people to plan renovations on their home from the outside in.

“You don’t want to start with your kitchen and all of a sudden [realize you] have mould behind the walls [or] maybe faulty electrical,” Holmes says. “You want to make sure you address those things first so that way, down the road when you do invest in a nice kitchen, you don’t have to tear it out and do it again because you haven’t prioritized your renovation.”

Holmes adds that the exterior of the home needs to be sealed properly to prevent animals such as squirrels and skunks from getting into the home.

“They can remove your insulation,” Holmes says. “They can affect the quality of your home so you want to make sure you seal up the outside properly.”

Holmes stressed the importance of focusing on environmental impacts when building homes.

“We need to do something to help our environment,” Holmes says. “We are one of the industries that can really make a difference if we build sustainably, if we use sustainable building products, recycled products. A lot of these things can help our building industry a lot — we’ll have a longer lifetime in our homes, we’ll have healthier homes and we won’t have to renovate them and dispose of all this garbage into our landfills.”

Holmes delivered his presentation at a community breakfast gathering, which included Fort William Chief Peter Collins and three councillors.

“His presentation was exceptional — it’s something much needed out here,” says Fort William Councillor Sherry Pelletier. “We had a very good turnout and the opportunity to ask questions about an individual’s home was something that we don’t too often get to do out here.”

Fort William Councillor Michele Solomon says the key points she heard were the importance of building a home from the outside in and making sure environmentally friendly products are used in the construction.

“Most of us want a home that is aesthetically pleasing,” Solomon says. “What was really loud and clear from him was do a great job on your foundation and your exterior and your roof, and basically the rest will follow.”

Solomon says the number of questions from participants at the gathering “really speaks to the issues” that the community has historically had with their housing.

“We have certainly had many issues with mould in our homes, so this is giving people something to think about in terms of how we build homes here,” Solomon says. “Maybe we need to be looking at how we can build them differently.”