By Ted McIntyre
When it comes to supporting the home building industry and helping educate those in power on its behalf, Pierre Dufresne has few equals. Harnessing his efforts and expertise to help grow one of OHBA’s small chapters south of Ottawa helped earn the Senior V.P. of Cavanagh Communities honours as OHBA’s 2024 Member of the Year.
An active member of the HBA network, Dufresne has a long history of service in his eastern Ontario region and across the province. OHBA chair in 2017-2018, Past President of the Greater Ottawa Home Builders’ Association and current president of the Lanark-Leeds HBA, Dufresne has also served on the OHBA board of directors in several positions, most recently as the Eastern Ontario Regional Committee co-chair.
“To be recognized by industry colleagues and peers at that level—it’s a true honour,” says Dufresne, who is gaining a new perspective on housing industry challenges in Lanark-Leeds. “I went from president of a 400-person local to over 4,000 in Ontario. Then I joined the Lanark-Leeds association a year and a half ago. We had 29 members at the time but are now up to 66. A lot of that is Ottawa builders and trades who have joined the association looking for business opportunities in Lanark-Leeds.”
Dufresne helped ignite that fire prior to his presidency, organizing a housing summit in Perth and luring Ottawa colleagues with land holdings and development opportunities in his region.
“We recruited about 15 members that night alone, and it grew from there,” says Dufresne, who also helped establish a builder-developer council to reach out to municipalities to create exposure of work being done by the local association.
While his local municipalities may be small, that doesn’t mean their problems are, Dufresne notes. “Even though they’re rural, these small towns like Carlton Place, Arnprior, Almonte and Kemptville are all having to accommodate accelerated growth levels, with the same infrastructure and urban density issues as Ottawa or any other metropolitan area as homebuyers look for more affordable communities. There’s just a whole different rural perspective on how to address these challenges.”
Become a member of the Ontario Home Builders’ Association.