An interior shot of Eagle Mountain Homes manufacturing facility in Winkler

 

An innovative, energy efficient product manufactured in Winkler has been generating a lot of interest nationally and beyond. The Federal government has given Eagle Mountain Homes a repayable loan of just over $842,000 to expand its operations and increase the number of employees at its plant.

The company produces insulated panels that are shipped to remote and northern location where they are assembled into modular homes. The panels feature a polyurethane core, with a corrugated steel exterior.

 

A picture of what the insulated panels look like

 

Co-owner Art Paetkau says there are a number of advantages to their product beginning with construction. Once the panels are on-site they fit together fairly simply, and are put together in a similar fashion to Lego. He adds in traditional northern housing mildew and mould are problems, particularly in corners. Eagle Mountain Homes manufactures preformed corners which Paetkau tells us eliminates that problem.

 

Equipment at the ready inside Eagle Mountain Homes

 

Paetkau says they are currently building units one at a time, and they are hoping to use the repayable loan to invest in some equipment to increase that figure. He says the increased production could also allow them to add up to eight additional employees to the current two on staff. Paetkau feels there is good potential for the company, noting they can get materials into places where traditional homes couldn't be built indicating they have flown some buildings in pieces.

 

(left to right) Mike Beaulieu North West Company, Jake Neufeld Designer, Candice Hoeppner Portage-Lisgar M.P., Art Paetkau Co-owner Eagle Mountain Homes

 

Eighty-seven year old Jake Neufeld, who designed the panelling in the early 1980's, was in attendance at Tuesday's announcement. He told us it took a lot of work to get the design just right, in particular addressing how the steel and chemical in the panels interacted with each other. Neufeld spoke with us about how he came up with the idea for the panels in the first place.

 

 

~ Tuesday, July 13th 2010 ~