At Canada China Business Council’s Forum on November 15, 2024, CCBC announced the winners of the 9th Canada China Business Excellence Awards. The Awards, chosen by an independent panel of judges, recognize organizations from CCBC’s membership that take a leading and innovative role in expanding and nurturing bilateral business relationships. The successful stories of our award winners provide inspiration to other companies, helping to encourage more successful trade and investment between Canada and China. The awards include:
- Canada Wood Group’s Haiyan ZHANG won Gold in Women in Leadership: This award recognizes female executives or leaders who have made a consequential impact on a company or institution’s success in or with China.
- Canada Wood Group won Silver in Benefit to Canada: The average Canadian is unaware of the economic benefit that Canadian exports to China bring to Canadians. This award recognizes companies who have achieved business results from exporting Canadian goods and/or services to China
Donald Trump has said he will impose tariffs of 25% on all imports from Canada and Mexico, and an extra 10% on Chinese goods, accusing the countries of permitting illegal migration and drug trafficking. …The Canadian dollar fell 0.9% against the US dollar to a four-year low, while the Mexican peso shed 1.3%. The announcements serve as opening shots in Trump’s confrontational new trade policy. “Stiff new tariffs on imports from the US’s three largest trading partners would significantly increase costs and disrupt business across all economies involved,” said a Washington-based think-tank. “Even the threat of tariffs can have a chilling effect.” …Canada’s Chrystia Freeland hailed the bilateral relationship with the US as “one of the strongest and closest . . . particularly when it comes to trade and border security”. They also noted that Canada “buys more from the United States than China, Japan, France and the UK combined”, and last year supplied “60% of US crude oil imports”.
MONTREAL – Unifor members of Council 4000 and Local 100 at Canadian National Railway (CN Rail) have voted overwhelmingly in favour of strike action, with 96% of Local 100 members and 97% of Council 4000 members supporting the mandate, preparing to take action should an agreement not be reached by January 1, 2025. “This overwhelming vote sends a clear message to CN that our members are united and prepared to take action to achieve the fair treatment and respect they deserve,” said Unifor National President Lana Payne. “Our members have had enough of concessions that erode their rights and livelihoods and they are standing strong to demand a contract that reflects their value and the critical role they play in CN’s success.” The decisive vote underscores the frustration and determination of CN workers who have been advocating for job security, fair compensation and improved working conditions.
Re: Trump’s announcement of 25% tariffs on Canada and Mexico. …While the announcement garnered much attention, few traders considered the threat credible, and the industry as a whole took a wait-and-see approach to the news. In Western S-P-F, upward price momentum paused as the US holiday approached. Buyers had an easier time covering immediate needs, and declined to extend inventories, especially in spots where winter weather had settled in. Lumber futures was little changed in early trading. Buyers across the South lacked urgency amid abundant supplies of most items. Downward price pressure was unabated. Many veteran traders noted that the price spread between Southern Pine and Western S-P-F was the widest they had seen in their careers and expressed surprise that species substitution was not more prevalent. In Coast markets, upward price momentum and tight supplies kept prices trending higher in uneventful trading. 
Earlier this year, the Canadian government released a new housing plan aimed at building more homes and addressing housing unaffordability. As part of that plan, government announced $600 million in funding to build homes cheaper and quicker using “innovative technologies.” The funding is earmarked for building more housing by automating processes and using materials like mass timber construction, robotics and 3D printing. …Building materials like mass timber, including cross-laminated timber (CLT), offer a renewable low-carbon substitute for conventional materials, reducing a building’s carbon footprint. …Piecemeal solutions or standalone initiatives cannot address the housing crisis. Canada needs a holistic and multi-stakeholder approach that bridges the gaps between federal, provincial and municipal governments, and includes the active participation of industry stakeholders and local communities.
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The latest phase of the $18 million Stanley Park logging operation lifted-off Nov. 19. Two helicopters from Black Tusk Helicopter Inc. are using the Prospect Point Picnic Area as a temporary landing and refuelling site. Their job is to pick-up logs felled on the cliffs above the Stanley Park Seawall, between Third Beach and Prospect Point… The Park Board said the logging is necessary due to the Hemlock looper moth infestation and wildfire fears. Contractor B.A. Blackwell and Associates estimated the pest affected 160,000 trees in the park. In the Stanley Park Preservation Society’s unsuccessful court bid to halt the logging, a lawyer for city hall said another 30 hectares will be logged this fall and winter. Watch a YouTube video 
Thunder Bay, Ontario
The strategy that the Trump administration could follow will have significant benefits for regions that desperately need the jobs: the coal mining sector and the forest products sector. …This well-proven co-firing strategy, which is already in place in many other countries, can provide certainty for the need for US produced coal, certainty for US coal mining jobs, and stimulate billions of dollars of new capital investment for the production of solid fuel derived from the by-products of the primary forest products sector. …By supporting the blending of 15% US produced bioresource derived solid fuel with 85% US produced coal in coal- fueled power plants, the strategy will support the continued operation of those power plants and therefore will sustain the demand for coal as part of the power generation fuel mix. The plan will also strongly support the otherwise fading markets for residual forest products.
Regina, SK – Carbon RX Inc. is proud to announce a new partnership with the Pimicikamak Cree Nation to assist in forest management and preservation of First Nation lands in Manitoba. The project includes 3 million acres of traditional lands in the Canadian boreal forest, home to the Pimicikamak people. “We are the original keepers of the land,” said Chief David Monias, Chief of Pimicikamak. “As part of our inherent rights, we proudly hold historic environmental sovereignty over our traditional lands. We can use modern techniques like carbon crediting to protect and preserve these lands for the next generation. We encourage other Nations to do the same.” First Nation forests generate carbon credits by acting as Mother Earth’s solar panels and absorbing and storing carbon dioxide from the atmosphere through photosynthesis. When a forest is managed sustainably or restored, the additional carbon sequestered can be quantified and verified as carbon credits.