Glenn Fallis in his shop where he has switched from manufacturing modern canoes based on traditional designs to producing custom engineered industrial parts to commercial customers.
Last November, Glenn Fallis regaled an audience at an historical society event where he showed a film he created describing his experience as a member of the Ontario crew in the Centennial Voyageur Canoe Pageant that was held as part of the nation’s 1967 Centennial celebrations. Last week he began at the same spot, explaining how this event triggered the launch of his Millbrook business, Voyageur Canoe, which he founded with partner Greg Cowan in 1969.
Glenn and Greg met in the Centennial Pageant where they were both members of the Ontario paddling team. During the extensive preparation for the Centennial event, it became clear that there was a shortage of canoe producers in Ontario. At the time, Glenn was an engineering student at Ryerson. He decided to build molds for 2 styles of canoes in his parent’s basement in 1966.Upon graduating in the spring of 1968, he found that the job he expected to start at General Electric in Peterborough was cancelled over concerns about the economy. Building canoes looked like a reasonable career alternative at that moment.
The pair needed a credible entrée into the industry, and they found it in the All-Weather Tent Company, which agreed to expand their product line to include canoes. Glenn continued to apply his engineering skills to the construction of a system of fiberglass ribs for canoes, which prevented them from flexing like their wooden counterparts and significantly reduced their weight- a double win from a user’s perspective. The result was a conventional canoe style made with modern techniques that was both light flexible and buoyant. They soon secured contracts to build a dozen 21 foot canoes: six for Queen’s University and another six for a customer in Nova Scotia. Weighing only 165 lbs.,they could carry six paddlers.
By 1969, All Weather was happy to part with the canoe line. Greg and Glenn founded Voyageur Canoe, establishing it in its current location, a former creamery. Shortly after, the partnership dissolved, with Greg choosing to make paddles and Glenn holding onto the canoe line.
Voyageur Canoe’s product line eventually expanded to seven basic models, many of them based on historical designs such as ones used by the Haida and Micmac First Nations. The larger, 36” canoe model was based on the model used by fur traders travelling the Great Lakes, while smaller versions, ten feet shorter, were used on smaller bodies of water. Customers included summer camps, cottagers and clubs. His canoes have been shipped allover the world, with customers in Alaska, Germany and Japan.
While he continued to build a variety of canoes, a tragedy highlighted the importance of proper training required to manoeuvre these water craft in rough water. In June, 1978, a group of twelve to fourteen year old students and four leaders from St. John’s Anglican school in Claremont set out for a character-building adventure on Lac Temiscamingue on the Ontario/Quebec border north of Ottawa. Conditions changed during their first day of travel, capsizing the canoes in high wind. Twelve students and one adult died of hypothermia. This event motivated Glenn to apply the lesson she learned during his extensive preparation or the Centennial Pageant to teach paddlers how to travel safely. The impact of these training courses was acknowledged by a number of people in the audience who had taken some of these classes.
Glenn also showed images of another paddling highlight: a 2013 excursion from Milanto Venice with two twenty-six foot canoes. Some of the participants in that journey were in the audience and added details about the trip.
Glenn’s engineering skills caught the attention of a few local industries in need of custom parts for their businesses. His first industrial project was for Purity Packaging in Peterborough, and by 2016, 80% of the firm’s business was for commercial applications.
One of his largest commercial projects was creating gaskets for the subway tunnels in the new Eglinton subway line in Toronto. These gaskets are made of MDF which is cut using Computerized Numeric Cutting Machine technology, which controls variance of the parts to within 3/1000th of an inch. These gaskets fit between the concrete tunnel segments to ensure an effective seal, and must absorb the pressure applied by the concrete sections that are 22’ in diameter and 10’ long.
In 2020, Glenn stopped producing canoes and dedicated all of his energy to custom engineered services. Now in his early 80’s, he is slowing down but is determined to keep at it for as long as he can. A career inspired by a love of paddling has flourished thanks to Glenn’s engineering skills, creativity and his ability to find new opportunities to apply his energy and curiosity. Entrepreneurs understand that success requires effort, intelligence and the ability to find ways to apply their skills in new markets.