Building prosperity by creating more housing

Boosting the inventory of quality rental apartments  

Canada has a housing shortage. According to the Canada Mortgage and Housing Corporation, housing starts must nearly double to around 430,000 to 480,000 units per year until 2035 to meet projected demand. Yet the answer is not just to build more homes, but to build to the standards required by our country’s harsh and changeable climate. That means understanding how different building materials react to cold, heat and storms. 

“This is especially important with climate change,” says Sean Tassé. “We can’t keep doing what we’ve been doing for years.”

Tassé says Canadian weather pushes builders to problem-solve and be nimble in ways developers in other countries don’t have to. 

“Try to pour concrete and do masonry in winter. It’s a big challenge,” he says.

His company, LEMNY, is a Montréal-based general contractor that manages and builds multi-residential rental projects for real estate developers in Quebec. He and his two co-founders have hired 14 young, tech-savvy civil engineers and expect to welcome another half dozen by the end of 2026. 

Tested in the lab, proven on the worksite

As a student in civil engineering, Sean conducted cement testing within the Department of Construction Engineering at the Products, Processes and Systems Engineering Laboratory at the École de technologie supérieure. His work at the CFI-funded lab taught him how to test building materials and understand their limitations — how they break under stress, how they react to extreme temperatures.

That knowledge now guides LEMNY’s materials selection for every project, ensuring that each build meets rigorous standards for quality, durability and adaptability to Canadian weather.

“It meant I got to smell cement, feel it, look at it and understand it,” says Tassé.“These are things you see on a worksite and that lab experience gave me an edge.”  

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