BC’s forest industry stands at an important juncture and crossroads of its future prosperity and the high standard of living it imparts to individuals, communities, and society. Much has been written, documented and analyzed about its massive contribution to the gross domestic product, taxes and revenues to all levels of government, the 100,000 jobs dependent on its success, and the absolute reliance for so many of BC’s resource communities. In fact, BC’s forest sector is one of a few “profitable” job segments that drive our economy and government services through above average wages and consequential higher tax revenues. …Today we find a forest sector under significant (or severe) stress with uncertainty being the predominant constant from initiatives at the federal and provincial levels. This uncertainty arises from the flood of programs, policies, and initiatives each arising without any apparent consistency, coordination, or weighing of economic impacts among them.
As British Columbians, we must recognize the importance of a viable resource industry in our province and must demand clear and consistent objectives when new land use, environmental, and Indigenous reconciliation policies are undertaken. …As all these considerations are being examined, there needs to be a concurrent process that dramatically reduces the regulatory complexity and delays we currently face in running our businesses. The permitting processes must be straightforward, timely, predictable and fair. Obviously, we are biased towards the success of BC’s forest sector given we have a vested interest in its prosperity and hopefully a continued standard of living in BC. I encourage you to ask the right questions and be informed on voting day. Look for the answers from all candidates that will lead to the success of our forest sector and towards the general prosperity of our communities and province.
NEW YORK — Mercer announced that its Peace River mill has taken downtime to complete necessary repairs to the mill’s digester after experiencing a mechanical failure. The Company currently expects the repairs and related assessments will be completed in mid-October 2024, and anticipates that NBHK production at the mill will be reduced by approximately 45,000 tonnes during such period. The Company maintains property and business interruption insurance for the Peace River mill and expects the repairs and business interruption will be covered by such insurance, subject to customary deductibles and limits. …Mercer’s consolidated annual production capacity of 2.1 million tonnes of pulp, 960 million board feet of lumber, 210 thousand cubic meters of cross-laminated timber, 45,000 cubic meters of glulam, 17 million pallets and 230,000 metric tonnes of biofuels.
The concept of building small apartment buildings with a single staircase is being met with renewed debate, this time in Burnaby. Earlier this year, the province announced building code changes that removed the requirement to have two stairwells in multi-unit buildings of up to six storeys. The province argues that allowing single stairwells will allow for more units in buildings and that modern safety regulations have eliminated the need for two stairwells. But designer and housing advocate Bryn Davidson says he’s been told a municipal planner in Burnaby that the city won’t accept single-stairwell designs, due to safety concerns from the local fire department… groups say the B.C. government made its changes outside of Canada’s national code development process, while the International Codes Council rejected a similar proposed change in May.
EllisDon is collaborating with British Columbia educators to funnel their mass timber knowledge into a new microcredential program. EllisDon director of construction sciences Mark Gaglione said the microcredential program originated with the British Columbia Institute of Technology (BCIT) who engaged David Moses, the principal of Moses Structural Engineers, to assist in writing curriculum before reaching out to EllisDon in 2022. …EllisDon engaged in three sections of the course: planning for mass timber construction, installation and the integration of other components with a mass timber build. …BCIT has made significant progress regarding mass timber education. “They are leaders in this space,” Gaglione said. “They were really the first to see this as a knowledge gap and do something about it.” The online course is open to non-students with one year of experience in carpentry, ironworking, construction management building inspection, design, development, manufacturing and estimating.
When wildfires ravaged the town of Jasper in July, it wasn’t hard for Banff residents to imagine it happening in their own mountain community. …Parks Canada says there is a combination of factors that are increasing the chance and severity of intense, faster-moving and longer-lasting wildfires that pose a risk to communities in mountain parks. …Parks Canada is taking steps to reduce the risk of wildfires in Banff National Park through several fire management projects in the fall and through the winter. In November, crews will begin thinning a 200-hectare area on Tunnel Mountain, using machines to clear mature pine and spruce trees. The goal is to reduce fuel for fires that could pose a risk to Banff, Harvie Heights and Canmore.
Reconciliation is a provincial imperative, embedded in law, and there is real progress and change. In 2019, government passed the Declaration on the Rights of Indigenous Peoples Act (Declaration Act). …Through this work, government is building a province where Indigenous excellence, leadership, governance and self-determination are recognized and respected. …Reconciliation agreements [with significant forestry components] include:
People with common sense only agree to spend huge sums of money if they are sure of getting a worthwhile result. Logically, you’d expect Canadian government websites would have the information we need to make a common-sense decision: how much will Net Zero cost us, and what benefit in “global cooling” will our spending achieve?… For Canada alone, the Royal Bank of Canada suggests reaching 75 per cent of Net Zero by 2050 will cost $60 billion Cdn a year, which works out to about $1,500 a year for every Canadian, or $6,000 a year for a family of four… Faced with these numbers, a person with common sense asks: if we make ourselves poorer by $6,000 or more per household a year, how much “global warming” will our sacrifices prevent?