Christopher Smith is the founder of Woodsmith Construction Inc., a design-build renovation company that has specialized in older homes in Toronto’s east end since 2001. That work began in childhood, on Victorian homes in Cabbagetown alongside his architect-builder father. A Red Seal Carpenter and BCIN licensed designer, he takes projects from first sketch to final trim — full-home renovations, additions and restorations.

Christopher is the incoming Chair of the Renovator Executive Committee at BILD, sits on its Government Relations Committee, has been a RenoMark member in good standing since 2016, serves on the OHBA Renovators’ Council, and is a featured contributor to Canadian Contractor.

Over the past two years he has rebuilt how Woodsmith runs its day around AI — not as a pilot, but as the working operating system of a small renovation company. AI now drafts his client correspondence, files and codes every vendor invoice, prepares his bank feed and bills for approval, checks City of Toronto permit and zoning notices against the OBC and By-law 569-2013, builds site statistics and takeoffs, lays out the crew and trade schedule each week, and turns site-meeting recordings into project logs. Nothing leaves unreviewed — every draft, entry and post waits for him — and that approval discipline is what made the scale possible.

He is candid about what has worked, what quietly broke, and what it cost to tell the difference. His interest on this panel is practical: what a small builder can actually put into production, and where the failure modes hide.