Inuvik (Oct 24/03) - The business of building has brought a young contractor North.

Mike Taylor, 29, has big plans to help fill the housing shortage here.

Taylor says he got into construction "because of a lack of education."

He started his first company in a partnership when he was 18, building and renovating houses in his hometown, Cochrane, Alta.

He moved to Edmonton and started True North Homes and came to Inuvik last year, when his wife Sue accepted a position in town.

"I could see there was a lot of opportunity here," Taylor said.

He's been doing renovation work, new home construction and is currently building the log entrance at the new hospital.

Taylor has entered an arrangement with Ridgewood Homes, a modular home company in Edmonton and has plans on building in Inuvik, but for the winter, he's booked some warmer working conditions.

"We'll be shipping two manufactured homes from Edmonton to Maui," he said.

Working with the Edmonton developer, Taylor is building the homes in hopes of a quick sale so they can build more.

He invited the company president to Inuvik to check out the market, but also to impress him with the great fishing.

"I was catching fish all the time, but when you try to impress somebody, you can't catch a single fish," he laughed. "We went to Campbell Lake, Campbell Creek, Airport Lake and up the river. He never caught a fish after I'd told him all these fish stories."

Since setting up shop in Inuvik, Taylor's been busy enough to hire four full-time employees and still keep himself busy on the site.

"I have to be at the site all the time to see that things get done right. I'm also busy bidding on jobs and chasing money," he said.

He'll return to Inuvik in the spring after his Hawaii job is finished and looks forward to a busy season.

"We've already got a few projects lined-up for next year and we'll probably get really busy," he said. "There's going to be a pretty good boom here and we hope to get in on that."