Chris Kalesnikoff

CASTLEGAR — …a big parcel of bare land beside the Castlegar airport will be transformed into an 80,000-square-foot assembly plant for prefabricated mass timber buildings, thanks in part to $6.7 million from the provincial government. “We started as a forestry company, then a sawmill, then mass timber. And, now, with prefabricated mass timber buildings, we are in construction,” says Chris Kalesnikoff, chief operating officer of Kalesnikoff Lumber. …But there is an elephant in the room. The state of the province’s wood supply is simply “horrible,” says Kalesnikoff. Kalesnikoff Lumber is in a better position than most, because it is able to use wood sourced from its own sawmill. However, even wood supply at the sawmill is on the downturn. …Gary Bull, professor emeritus at UBC’s department of forest resources management, says there are discussions underway among the provincial government, forestry companies and First Nations over the future of tenure management in B.C.