By Ted Mcintyre
Greater Ottawa HBA
Founded 1951 Members: 436
Executive Director, Jason Burggraaf
OHB: So how did a Newfoundland boy end up as GOHBA’s Executive Director?
Jason Burggraaf: “I came to Ottawa to go to Carleton University and be close to Parliament Hill. I wanted to get into public policy and was exposed to non-profits and NGOs like OHBA. After graduating, I was hired by CHBA and spent 15 years there in a couple of different roles, including the last five as Government Relations Advisor. Then when John Herbert retired from this job in 2018, I was lucky enough to be chosen to take over. I’d interacted with (former OHBA Chair) Pierre Dufresne while I was at the national office, and he was the one I reached out to first when the opportunity arose.”
What was your vision coming in?
“I wanted to run the policy development and the advocacy side of things while building a team that could focus on member services and development. The idea was to have a structure where people operated relatively autonomously but whom I had confidence in to always do the right thing for our members. It’s a very different arrangement from when I started. Soula Burrell focuses on membership and business development. She also directs our outreach on LinkedIn—our primary social media voice to reach the local community and potential members. Tracey Parslow runs our Trade Development Initiative and our Renovators’ Council. Amy Crooks supports me in our policy development while also taking care of our Builder Trade and Building Innovation Committees. Christina Pliatsika runs most of the admin side and our Housing Design Awards (HDAs), which last year saw 800 people attend our awards gala.”
How is this paying off in terms of numbers?
“Membership is up to 436—a 33% increase over the past two years. It’s kind of like a gym membership—you can sign up, but if you don’t put in the time and work, you won’t get much value out of it. So we put a big focus on understanding what members want and communicating to help them get the value out of the association that they’re looking for.”
What makes GOHBA unique?
“The Ottawa market feels like a small town in that we are isolated from other big municipalities. Most of our builders are homegrown. At the same time, we’ve found good value in investing time and effort at the provincial level to offer an Ottawa context on housing policy that’s often different from that of the GTA.
“We’ve also had great success with HOWL (Home Builders of Ottawa Women Leaders), which looks at the changing dynamics of the workforce and is committed to fostering a more equitable environment.
“We also have one of the bigger contingents of renovators in Ontario, so we really strive to ensure that we’re representing them well. And they’ve won a lot of awards!”
What challenges occupy most of your time these days?
“It’s definitely the issues on the ground with City Hall—the application process, development charges, zoning and land availability. The current growth projection for Ottawa is 50% larger than what’s in our Official Plan, so in all these aspects we want to ensure that there’ll be a sufficient amount of housing to accommodate our growing population.”
What GOHBA initiatives are you most proud of?
“I’d say the overall success of our events, for which we’ve seen fantastic response. On top of our HDAs, we had a very successful Eastern Ontario Housing Summit last May that saw more than 300 attendees and 35 municipalities represented. We’re also proud of our annual RenoTour. Like a parade of homes, we’ll have 10 to 12 renovation projects that the public can visit and talk to the renovator members who did the work. Finally, our recent Breakfast with the Mayor event drew over 180 attendees. I think our events reflect a real buzz about what GOHBA is doing.”
Become a member of the Ontario Home Builders’ Association.
Order a copy of the Late Spring 2025 issue.
Subscribe to or advertise in the OHBA magazine.