As Halloween approaches, a walk through the forest can feel a little mysterious. Fallen trees stretch across the forest floor, twisted branches emerge from piles of leaves, and hollow logs sit in the shadows. At first glance, it might look like something out of a spooky story. But don’t be fooled. What may appear lifeless or messy is actually one of the most important parts of a healthy forest ecosystem. …Known as downed woody debris, these fallen pieces of wood may appear lifeless, but they are far from it. …Downed wood provides habitat for wildlife, supports food webs and helps maintain healthy soil. …What looks like just a decaying log is actually a busy hub of activity. Beetles, ants, spiders and other insects move through the wood as it breaks down, creating an important food source for many forest animals. …This Halloween, when you spot a fallen tree … take a closer look. What may seem spooky, messy or forgotten is helping support wildlife, insects, fungi and healthy forest soils. …In nature, appearances can be deceiving. A healthy forest doesn’t always look tidy.
A thumping, a shellacking, maybe even a disaster. …The Democrats will take control of both the House and the Senate. …Voters clearly sent a message that they are angry about the Republican president’s failure to deliver on his promise of lowering prices, punishing him in particular for pursuing the war in Iran and for launching his tariff regime. …Canadians have been paying much more attention than usual, in large part because of the potential impact on how Trump deals with the country that he keeps threatening to make the 51st state. Federal and provincial government officials have quietly been hoping a Republican spanking in the midterms would give Canada more leverage in trade talks with the Trump administration. …Democrats signalled they would act quickly to advance legislation. Among their targets: restoring the health insurance subsidies, taking down Trump’s tariffs and blocking authorization for the war against Iran.
Canadian pulp producer 
MONTREAL — The European Union and Canada have agreed to build the closest possible relationship. Over the next six months, they will have to define what that means — and whether Canada can become the EU’s first, and perhaps only, associate member. A summit in Montreal last week highlighted the urgency behind the budding relationship. Both sides say their partnership is positive and not directed against any country. But it is also driven by mutual need: to shore up supply chains, pool expertise and reduce reliance on the United States and China. Mark Carney told POLITICO in an interview that the two sides should not be tailoring their partnership to cope with the potential reactions of other powers. …
Weak pulp and lumber markets have put heavily indebted forest products producers under growing pressure, with interest costs consuming cash that would otherwise go back into mills. One of the sector’s larger producers is now turning to a court-supervised restructuring that will hand most of the company to its bondholders in exchange for wiping out most of its debt. Shares of Mercer International are surging Tuesday after the company announced late Monday that it has signed restructuring support agreements. The agreements address $1.275 billion of senior notes and provide $400 million of fully backstopped new capital. …Mercer will implement the deal through a prepackaged Chapter 11 plan covering only the parent company and a non-operating Texas subsidiary. Confirmation is expected within about 45 days of filing, with completion targeted by the end of 2026. …The company plans to apply for a new exchange listing after emergence.
VANCOUVER, BC
As voters in North Carolina and across the nation head to the polls, the rising cost of seemingly everything is dominating much of the political discourse. While fuel prices get a lot of the attention, other products in North Carolina also are seeing price increases. …While inflation − the Federal Reserve said the U.S. annual inflation rate in September 2026 was 3.7% − is fueling price hikes across the board, tariffs are helping heat up costs. Key to the rising costs in certain North Carolina sectors is the growing trade war with Canada. …Canada is North Carolina’s largest export partner, representing 20.2%, or $8.7 billion worth of exports in 2024, according to the N.C. Department of Commerce. Residential building material prices, including lumber, are up nearly 10%. …On both sides of the border forest products, which can be especially important economic engines in rural areas, have found themselves targeted by tariffs.
OTTAWA — The Bank of Canada on Wednesday hiked its key policy rate for the first time in more than three years and said further increases might be needed to prevent soaring energy costs from fuelling broader inflation. The bank lifted the rate by 25 basis points to 2.5 per cent, as widely expected, and also ramped up its inflation forecast for 2027 to 3.1 per cent from the 2.0 per cent it had predicted in July. Growth this year is set to be 1.0 per cent, higher than the 0.7 per cent seen in July. “With the outlook for inflation substantially higher and the economy showing resilience, an increase in the policy rate is needed to reduce the risk,” Governor Tiff Macklem said. …The annual inflation rate hit 3.2 per cent in September, above the bank’s one-three per cent target range, almost solely led by higher energy and energy-related costs of transportation.
MONTREAL — Stella-Jones announced financial results for its third quarter ended September 30, 2026. …Sales for the third quarter of 2026 increased to $979 million, up from $958 million in the same period last year driven by continued volume growth in wood utility poles and a strong contribution from the acquisition of Brooks Manufacturing. Gross profit was $168 million, or 17.2% of sales, in the third quarter of 2026, compared to $188 million, or 19.6% in the corresponding period last year. …Net income for the third quarter of 2026 was $51 million versus net income of $88 million in the corresponding period of 2025. …”Sales gains were largely offset by an unfavourable wood utility pole product mix, temporary downtime related the ramp-up of the steel structures capacity expansion project in Candiac, and a pricing lag in residential lumber,” said Eric Vachon, President and CEO of Stella-Jones.
EDMUNDSTON, New Brunswick – Acadian Timber reported financial and operating results1 for the three months ended September 26, 2026. During the third quarter, Acadian generated sales of $24.0 million compared to $23.0 million in the third quarter of 2025. Acadian generated $4.4 million of net income, $5.0 million of Adjusted EBITDA and $3.3 million of Free Cash Flow during the third quarter. The Board of Directors declared dividends of $5.4 million, or $0.29 per share, to our shareholders. Acadian’s balance sheet remains solid with $16.4 million of net liquidity as at September 26, 2026, which includes funds available under our credit facilities. …For the nine months ended September 26, 2026 timber sales and services were $62.0 million, $3.0 million lower than the same period of 2025. …”The changes that we made in Maine are paying off, with higher volumes and lower costs driving significantly stronger Adjusted EBITDA,” said Malcolm Cockwell, Interim CEO. 
At a time when Canada and the U.S. are struggling to address severe housing affordability challenges, the tariff war is pushing construction costs in both countries in precisely the wrong direction. While government leaders on both sides of the border have repeatedly pledged to increase housing supply, lower costs and make homeownership more attainable, escalating tariffs and counter-tariffs on both the residential and industrial, commercial and institutional (ICI) construction industry are having the exact opposite effect. …Developers are already grappling with persistent labour shortages, elevated interest rates, soaring land prices, development charges and regulatory hurdles. Added to that list is now a new and destabilizing force: tariffs on key construction materials and building components that are essential to housing projects. …Every tariff imposed somewhere in the supply chain eventually leads to higher prices. That matters because the Canadian and American construction industries are deeply integrated. 
Halifax will see greater support for housing development after the province announced it will remove barriers to improve growth. “Nova Scotia needs more housing, and these changes help build it. They support new housing in rural communities, make it easier to use new building approaches like mass timber and improve emergency access for existing communities,” said John White, Minister of Housing. …On Oct. 28, the province announced it will amend the Minimum Planning Requirement Regulations under the Halifax Regional Municipality Charter. This means strengthening a rule allowing residential housing in all zones unless specifically excluded. The changes underscore the importance of residential buildings in zones where hotels or other overnight accommodations are allowed to exist. It also require HRM to remove certain design requirements that can be a barrier to building mass timber residential buildings up to 12 storeys using modern methods. HRM must adopt the changes by Jan.15, 2027.
Almost half of the Parks Canada employees trying to help Jasper, Alberta, recover from a devastating 2024 wildfire could be among about 500 full-time staff facing job cuts nationwide. This news comes after nearly 3,000 Parks Canada staff around the country were sent letters notifying them of the upcoming cuts, and giving them the chance to voluntarily retire ahead of job losses. Of the roughly 3,000 letters sent by Parks Canada, 208 went to members of the 422-person Jasper Field Unit. Nearly two years after wildfire tore through Jasper, forcing the evacuation of the town and nearby Jasper National Park, Parks Canada crews are still busy cleaning up according to the federal government’s recovery plan. …Deep cuts to Parks Canada staffing, says Chris Rider, national director of conservation with the Canadian Parks and Wilderness Society, reflect the federal government’s treatment of nature as a whole.
Surfers are worried about an… application by the Pacheedaht Anderson Timber Holdings partnership for a Crown lease to build a breakwater and log-dumping area in a bay just east of the Jordan River campground. …The primary worry for surfers is how the breakwater could change the patterns of sedimentation that shape all of the surfable waves in the area. …Angus Hope, for Pacheedaht Andersen Holdings, said the proposal is in its very early stages. Any construction, pending approvals, could be “three to five years” away, he said in an interview. While the coastline near Jordan River is now dotted with oceanside cottages and provincial parks, it was once the heart of a booming logging industry that employed thousands. …Pacheedaht Andersen Timber Holdings — a 50-50 partnership between Pacheedaht First Nation and Andersen Timber — formed in 2010 when it purchased the Jordan River Timber Tree Farm Licence (TFL61) from Western Forest Products.
WINNIPEG, Manitoba — Canada’s biofuels industry warned that some gaps remain in the government’s proposed rules aimed at matching US incentives, and that the changes are unlikely to spur investment in the world’s top canola producer. Under the proposed rules, unveiled over the weekend, Canadian biofuel producers would receive more credits from the government for producing biofuels in Canada. To meet low carbon emissions intensity limits, they can either produce low-intensity fuels themselves or buy credits from others. The changes would replace a system in which only the use of biofuels earns credits, and foreign-produced fuels receive the same amount. They are designed to “close the competitiveness gap facing Canadian low-carbon fuel producers so they can compete fairly with US producers,” Canada’s government said. …The rules include different rates for ethanol, biodiesel and other alternative fuels.
Critics say there is a stark contrast between PM Mark Carney’s international reputation as a climate champion and his domestic drive to expand oil and gas production. …After pushback on the term from member states, most of all Germany, the EU is now pushing for “ever closer association” with Canada, in the latest draft of a joint declaration due to be adopted at the end of the EU-Canada summit which starts today in Montreal. There is broad consensus amongst member states on closer cooperation with Canada on areas such as defence, critical raw materials, energy, trade and border security. Just this week the EU’s climate chief has told member states they must prepare for increasingly extreme weather, signalling that the Commission is taking climate preparedness seriously. But what about Canada? Here we look into Canada’s policies on oil and gas, the energy transition, carbon pricing and greenwashing.
Canada is facing a carbon tariff threat from the European Union within months as the economic bloc fully implements its Carbon Border Adjustment Mechanism (CBAM). According to internal documents, Canadian iron, steel and aluminum are not exempt from the carbon tariff even with Canada’s national price on carbon and its decade-old trade deal with the European Union. …With the Canada-EU Summit this week in Montreal, Ottawa’s diplomats continue to seek an agreement with Brussels before Canadian exporters face additional compliance costs and a carbon charge that European importers will have to pay at the border in 2027. Prime Minister Mark Carney said on Tuesday that the summit marks the start of negotiations for Canada to become a closer strategic partner to the 27-member bloc. …Global Affairs estimates $2.8 billion worth of goods annually are exposed to the carbon import levy — primarily on metals that are already impacted by U.S tariffs.
