A major merger has taken place in the Habitat for Humanity community.

The Saskatoon, Prince Albert and Regina chapters have merged into Habitat for Humanity Saskatchewan.

Moose Jaw, which has a duplex being built by Habitat people, had been considered a chapter of the Regina organization.

Habitat board chair Bruce Anderson talked about the merger:

“What that means is that we’re looking for greater opportunities, additional homes that we can build to serve new families,” Anderson said. “So we’re looking for some synergies as a result of doing this. And new partnerships and new access to resources we didn’t have before.”

It's hoped that Habitat for Humanity Saskatchewan will be able to have more efficient operations and opportunities for more provincial fundraising. The provincial organization secured a $1 million pledge from Conexus Credit Union, money which will help on their builds province-wide.

“Moose Jaw has been a longstanding chapter… that we’ve valued, and Moose Jaw is part of the new arrangement,” Anderson said. “They’ll have a provincial affiliate that they’ll work with, as opposed to just out of the Regina office. So in some respects, affiliated with a Saskatchewan group rather than just a Regina group.”

A duplex is being built in Moose Jaw, one of 31 homes currently under construction province-wide. Throughout the pandemic, it hasn’t been easy to get builds off the ground, let alone their ReStores – which accept and distribute new and used building materials, with the funds raised going towards Habitat projects.

“Initially, because of restrictions, we had to close doors, we had to have our staff work from home, or in some cases we had to lay off people in the interim,” Anderson said. “The build sites themselves were closed because of restrictions. We’ve been able to reintroduce the builds with careful protocols that are required by provincial rules. We’ve been able to re-open the ReStores with the same arrangement and we’ve been able to move quite a bit of activity, in the case of the ReStores, onto an online platform with a local pickup and things like that.”

Anderson said they’ve been able to be back up to speed, and many of the 800 volunteers have been able to come back.