A great time was had in Prince George, BC, April 2 – 4 for the annual Council of Forest Industries convention. A jam-packed event of exhibitors and presenters brought 650 participants to the central British Columbia city to discuss the latest development with forestry and the lumber industry across North America:
The theme for this meeting was โWhere Do We Stand? Strategies for Competitiveness and Sustainabilityโ. Presenters ranged from economists and policy techs to First Nations and woodlots representatives, with a sizeable showing political leaders.
Much of the discussion over the two days centred around the difficulties for BC forest operators to access fibre. Many presenters talked about the challenges on the ground to gain cutting permits from BC Timber Sales. The presentation by COFIโs own VP & Chief Economist, Kurt Niquidet, captured the audience in rapt attention. Niquidet drew parallels between the availability of merchantable timber in Nordic countries, where there is substantial log harvest from tens of thousands of privately-owned timberlands as small as 10 hectares.
The suggestion is that BC First Nations and woodlots/Community Forests could achieve the same, by becoming forest owner timber suppliers. The next the panel topic was โRough Waters Ahead: Navigating Global Marketsโ, where Shawn Lawlor, Managing Director for Canada Wood Japan, explained that Canada Wood has received approval by China Cross-Laminated and Mass Timbers standards for BC Spruce-Pine-Fir.
The Forest Products Association of Canadaโs Chief Sustainability Officer and Senior VP, Kate Lindsay, talked about FPACโs โRoadmap to Bioeconomyโ which consists of four main pillars: Creating agile regulation and government policy; Establishing biomass supply and stewardship of natural capital; Building strong companies and value chains; and, Building strong sustainable innovation.
Next up, Tim Caldecott, Senior Director of Sustainable Construction at FPInnovations, presented โNew Takes on Hot Buildingsโ and explained the latest development in engineered wood โฆ making house foundations of out mass timber.
Further along the agenda was a fascinating presentation for the panel โLetโs Talk About Fibreโ, discussing predictable access to wood fibre supply. Jennifer Gunter, Executive Director of the BC Community Forest Association, advocated for โgetting the right tenure to the right placeโ in a โprocess from the ground upโ.
Describing fibre supply as a โsocial licenseโ, Gunter explained that a community forest agreement tenure is a strategy to good community engagement. Gunter continued that community forests have proven success, as they are โone of the highest performers of reaching Annual Allowable Cut levels with actual harvestsโ.
One example of this is the Pemberton Community Forest and Lรญlฬwat First Nation. Another example was Burns Lake, BC, which consists of two municipalities and six First Nations who all collaborated to achieve โconcrete Annual Allowable Cutโ.
Madisonโs took special note that the earlier discussion about ample access to fibre in Nordic countries from a large amount of small private timberland owners was similar to this newer conversation about increased real log harvest from combined Community Forests and First Nationsโ timberlands.
BC Minister of Forests, the Honourable Ravi Parmar, started his speech by asking if the crowd if they โfelt liberated yetโ (in reference to the US Presidentโs tariff announcements titled โLiberation Dayโ) . . . a comment which was met with a solid round of laughter.
Parmer detailed some of the latest new developments at the Ministry of Forests, specifically a review of BC Timber Sales. There are four changes already demonstrated, targetting silviculture and BC Parks, with a strong view toward forest stewardship. As well, changes to BC Timber Sales will now provide permits for fire salvage โwithin daysโ.
The Minister acknowledged that โwithout a healthy primary manufacturing industry the secondaries canโt operateโ which drew an enthusiastic round of applause.
British Columbia Premier David Eby delivered the final day luncheon keynote, starting off strong by announcing the Forestry Innovation Directive.
Using a new $10 million in funding, this Directive is tasked with โdiversifying BCโs forest products markets internationallyโ.
As well, transportation regulations have been changed to allow 9-axle trucks on BC roads.
There is also improvement in data collection, with LiDAR scanning to increase.
This new timber supply data will be available publicly.
Finally, the BC government has created a dashboard to track permit applications and increase accountability of delays to greatly reduce the backlogs.