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Canada’s housing challenges don't start and end with how many homes get built or how quickly they go up.
They’re shaped by the systems behind the scenes: the processes, constraints and decisions that determine whether projects move forward at all.
Inside DMZ’s Centre for Housing Innovation (CHI), founders are working on problems that don't always make the headlines but quietly shape how housing gets built, financed and delivered.
Two companies, Phil and Trax, are tackling very different parts of that system.
The overlooked impact of excess soil
For Phil, the challenge starts with something most people never think about: excess soil.
Phil is a digital platform that helps construction teams track, manage and reuse excess soil by connecting projects with nearby sites and partners that can use it.
“Construction projects generate millions of loads of excess soil a year in Ontario. Where does it go? Eighty percent of it goes to a landfill costing roughly $1,500 a load,” says Bryan Kerr, Co-founder of Phil. “Soil will be banned from landfills in 2027, and Ontario’s landfills will be full in seven years. It affects every Ontarian.”
Excess soil isn't just an environmental issue; it's a growing constraint on construction itself. Phil is working to turn what many view as waste into a resource.
However, solving a problem like this isn't just about building a product. It requires coordination across builders, regulators, municipalities and groups that don’t often collaborate closely.
“CHI gets it and is helping us surface this really challenging problem to important groups who are very difficult to reach otherwise,” says Kerr.
Through CHI, Phil gains access to decision-makers who directly influence how soil is managed, actively addressing an overlooked problem.
Navigating the regulatory maze
While Phil is tackling physical constraints on construction, Trax is focused on something less visible but just as impactful: regulatory friction.
“Municipal officials struggle to review and approve the volume of permits needed to address the housing crisis, while industry professionals face repeated rounds of revisions and approval timelines that can stretch 20–24 months,” says Ellen Hlozan, Director of Strategic Alliances at Trax.
At the core of the issue is how regulatory information is structured, or more accurately, how it isn't.
“There is no coordinated, digital-first strategy or format for publishing regulatory documents across jurisdictions,” says Hlozan. “Most codes and bylaws are still distributed as static PDFs, which are not interoperable or structured for digital readability.”
Trax is building AI enabled tools that transform this fragmented, static information into structured, usable data, easing the process of navigating approvals for both municipalities and industry professionals.
Like Phil, Trax’s challenge isn't just technical, it's systemic.
“Access to advisors with lived B2G experience in Canada is essential, along with warm introductions to key stakeholders in affiliated organizations that can be hard to navigate as a startup,” says Hlozan.
With CHI, Trax is gaining access to the people and institutions that shape how regulatory systems evolve, streamlining project approvals and driving impact on timelines and outcomes.
The work behind the housing crisis
The challenges these founders are working on aren’t always visible, and they’re rarely simple. But they're often the reason projects stall, costs climb and housing targets get missed year after year.
What Phil and Trax are showing is that progress doesn't just come from new construction methods or increased supply; it comes from addressing the underlying frictions that shape how projects move (or don’t) through the system.
CHI exists to connect founders like these with the rooms, relationships and expertise they need to tackle problems that won't solve themselves, and to make sure those problems reach the people with the power to change them.
DMZ's Centre for Housing Innovation is funded by the Government of Canada, through the Federal Economic Development Agency for Southern Ontario (FedDev Ontario).
Building solutions to real housing challenges? Applications for Cohort 3 of DMZ’s Centre for Housing Innovation are open. Apply now.
