Despite objections and concern over forestry jobs, Ottawa moves forward on emergency order to protect Quebec’s endangered caribou. In related news: researchers say culling wolves could be bad for caribou; the US asks the European Union to delay its deforestation law; and some Amazon forests are helped by drought. Meanwhile: APA announced its 2023 Safety Awards; CWC released its 2023 Annual Report, and Monika Patel is appointed CEO of FSC Canada.
In Forestry/Wildfire news: a fire causes Churchill Falls, Newfoundland to evacuate; Quebec calls for vigilance given heat wave; WorkSafeBC urges employers to protect workers from heat stress; hundreds of structures are destroyed in New Mexico wildfires; and Oregonians get a preview of new wildfire hazard map. Meanwhile: a mill fire is reported at Visscher Lumber in Chilliwack, BC; and a Washington company makes false declarations on timber imports.
Finally, US builder confidence ticks down in May, as US housing starts fall to four-year low.
Kelly McCloskey, Tree Frog Editor
A report released by the Commerce Department on Thursday unexpectedly showed a steep drop in new residential construction in the U.S. in the month of May. The Commerce Department said housing starts plunged by 5.5% to an annual rate of 1.277 million in May after surging by 4.1% to a revised rate of 1.352 million in April. Economists had expected housing starts to climb by 0.7%. With the unexpected decrease, housing starts fell to their lowest level since hitting an annual rate of 1.254 million in June 2020. Single-family housing starts dove by 5.2% to an annual rate of 982,000, while multi-family housing starts plummeted by 6.7% to an annual rate of 295,000. …The report also said building permits slumped by 3.8% to an annual rate of 1.386 million in May after tumbling by 3.0% to a rate of 1.440 million in April.
Housing prices in America today are near an all-time high, and home ownership has yet to recover from the 2008 and 2020 recessions. …With construction materials making up roughly 60% of a home’s cost, we need to address the problem from another angle. The U.S. currently has tariffs on important construction materials such as Canadian lumber and Chinese nails and pipes. Eliminating such building material tariffs could deliver a powerful blow to the other side of this housing problem. Unfortunately, President Biden has other plans. This May, the president announced a new 25% duty rate on Chinese steel, up from 0-7.5%. For comparison, the 5-20% duty rates on Canadian softwood lumber added an extra $24,000 to construction costs in 2021. Construction costs have skyrocketed since 2020, increasing by an average of 20% and outpacing even the highest inflation rate of 8%. Imposing still more tariffs on important construction materials will only further inflate those costs.
To the extent areas of increased climate risk may be reflected in pockets of repriced real estate in the US, those pockets have the potential to infect other areas of our financial system. After all, it was foreclosures in Las Vegas, Phoenix, and a handful of other locations that led to a cascade of global effects in 2008. …If we wanted to steadily, prudently reduce risks to homeowners in America that are being caused by out-of-date building codes, inadequate land-use policies, and under-capitalized insurers, one possible area to examine would be the rules that Fannie Mae and Freddie Mac use to screen the mortgages they agree to guarantee. Using this power wisely has the potential to affect much of the housing market, because these Government Sponsored Enterprises support about 70 percent of the mortgage market, according to the National Association of Realtors.
The federal government and companies that produce materials for the construction industry can play a significant role in helping to reduce the amount of carbon that is emitted each year. That’s the bottom line in a report from the Buy Clean Industry Alliance, a coalition of industry associations, think-tanks and labour and environmental groups which includes the Cement Association of Canada and Aluminum Association of Canada. The report, called Building Success: 
According to the National Integrated Heat Health Information System, more than 76.7 million Americans are facing heat-related warnings on Tuesday. In its Tuesday morning update, the National Weather Service said the heat wave is expected to persist across “the Great Lakes, Ohio Valley and the Northeast through the next few days,” with temperatures hitting the upper-to-mid 90s across most of the region. The actual impact of the heatwave could be even more severe with the Weather Prediction Center warning that some areas could see a heat index—a metric showing how hot the weather really feels—of between 100 degrees and 105 degrees. …While the Midwest region is expected to take the brunt of the heatwave on Tuesday, cities in the Northeast will also face extreme temperatures that will rise over the next few days. 
On January 1, 2024, Canada’s Parliament passed the Fighting Against Forced Labour and Child Labour in Supply Chains Act. This important piece of legislation is a vital response to global concerns about the prevalence of forced and child labour worldwide and helps Canada – and Canadian businesses – meet international treaty obligations, including the Universal Declaration of Human Rights and the International Labour Organization’s (ILO) Declaration on Fundamental Principles and Rights at Work. As part of the Act, all Canadian businesses over a certain size must submit a report to the federal Minister of Public Safety by May 31 each year, detailing the steps taken to ensure that their business supply chains are free of forced labour or child labour. As part of the Paper Excellence Group, Domtar Corporation and its subsidiaries, which includes Resolute Forest Products, and Paper Excellence Canada Investments Corporation recently submitted their first 
