Category Archives: Special Feature – COFI Convention

The Value Chain panel at the 2026 COFI Convention brought together perspectives from across the sector’s supply chain, with participants including Nick Arkle, CEO of Gorman Group; Kelly Marciniw, Chief Operating Officer of Zirnhelt Timber Frames and Chair of BC Wood Specialties Group; Todd Chamberlain, General Manager of the Interior Logging Association; and Blair Dickerson, Vice President of Public Affairs Canada at Domtar. The session was moderated by Sonya Zeitler Fletcher, Vice President of Market Development at Forestry Innovation Investment. Asked by Zeitler Fletcher about where Gorman Group is moving as it relates to a regional cluster, Arkle described an approach to bringing together First Nations, communities, manufacturers, and value-added producers within a defined geographic area around a shared and secure fibre supply.

The State of the Forest Economy panel opened Day 2 of the 2026 COFI Convention with a data-driven examination of trade diversification, housing demand, investment attractiveness, and BC’s declining competitive position relative to other Canadian and North American jurisdictions. The session was moderated by Kurt Niquidet, COFI’s Vice President and Chief Economist, who noted that COFI’s latest economic impact study — released earlier in the week and available at cofi.org — underscores that even during a period of contraction, forestry remains an indispensable pillar of the BC economy. Panelists were Hamir Patel, Executive Director and Paper & Forest Products Analyst at CIBC; Claire Huxtable, Senior Analyst at ERA Forest Products Research; and Jason Krips, President and CEO of the Alberta Forest Products Association.

The Forester Panel at the 2026 COFI Convention — titled Predictable and Economic Access to Wood — brought together five practitioners and researchers for a discussion moderated by Michael Armstrong, COFI Senior Vice President and Chief Forester. The panel covered the triad or three-zone forest management model, the gap between BC’s harvest targets, inter-jurisdictional comparisons, coastal forestry challenges, First Nations forest operations, and biomass. Panelists were Cheryl Hodder, Chief Forester of Wood Products Canada at Canfor; David Elstone, Managing Director of SparTree Group; Shannon Janzen, Principal of Hypha Consulting; Percy Guichon, CEO of Central Chilcotin Rehabilitation; and Christian Messier, Professor at the University of Quebec and co-founder of Habitat. Armstrong opened by displaying a chart showing BC’s interior and coastal sawmill production declining by approximately 50% since 2017 while other Canadian provinces have remained relatively flat.

The fireside chat on wildfire prevention and resilience at the 2026 COFI Convention brought together Dr. Jill Harvey, Canada Research Chair in Fire Ecology at Thompson Rivers University, and Leonard Joe, CEO of the BC First Nations Forestry Council. Harvey presented research findings from several active projects before the session moved into a Q&A format moderated by Joe. Harvey opened by placing the current wildfire crisis in historical context, drawing on fire scar records from interior Douglas fir trees that carry evidence of fire events stretching back 400 years. She described tree ring data from the Churn Creek protected area showing fire occurring on a 15-to-25-year cycle from 1620 through 1896 — evidence, she said, of deliberate, knowledge-informed land stewardship by Indigenous peoples over centuries. After 1896, fire activity in those records essentially ceases, reflecting the onset of industrial-era fire suppression. The result, she said, is a landscape now laden with fuel accumulated over more than a century with little natural or managed release.

Trevor Halford, Interim Leader of the Official Opposition and MLA for Surrey-White Rock, opened the second day of the 2026 COFI Convention with remarks that acknowledged the sector’s challenges directly and outlined what he said a Conservative government would prioritize. Halford said he is not a forestry expert but has spent considerable time listening to those who are, and singled out Conservative forestry critic Ward Stamer — who he said began his career in the bush 50 years ago — as someone who understands the industry through direct experience. He said the caucus hears clearly what the sector needs: secure access to fibre, streamlined permitting processes, strong Indigenous partnerships, investment in value-added and sustainable innovation, and lower costs.

Three BC mayors brought a community perspective to the 2026 COFI Convention in a panel moderated by Karen Brandt, Senior Vice President of Public Affairs and Partnerships at Mosaic Forest Management. The panelists were Leonard Krog, Mayor of Nanaimo; Brad West, Mayor of Port Coquitlam; and Maria McFadden, Mayor of Castlegar. The session ranged across polarization, public communications, civic engagement, land use, and what local governments need from the forestry sector to be effective advocates. Each mayor was asked to open with their biggest concern about the state of the sector and their hopes for it a decade out. West said his primary concern is that residents of Metro Vancouver are entirely unaware that mill closures have any material impact on their lives — that they do not connect the health care, education, and public services they rely on to the forestry workers who help fund them. Without that awareness, he said, the political conditions for meaningful action will not develop.

A panel of three emerging forestry leaders offered a ground-level perspective on the sector’s challenges and opportunities at the 2026 COFI Convention, in a session moderated by Natalie McGladrey, Strategic Business Advisor at Canfor. The panelists were Anna McNally, Manager of Cedar Sales at Western Forest Products; Georgina Clarke-Magnus, RPF and Planning Forester at A&A Trading Ltd.; and Mark Roller, RPF and General Manager of Woodlands at Sinclar Group Forest Products. Each described arriving in forestry by a non-linear path — Clarke-Magnus through urban roots and a pivot from psychology, Roller after a carpentry career in Alberta and a formative canoe trip with a forester father-in-law, and McNally after arriving from Ireland and taking a reception position at Western Forest Products that turned into a decade-long career. All three cited the people in the sector and the complexity of the work as what keeps them engaged.

Bruce Anderson, Chief Strategy Officer and Partner at Spark Advocacy, delivered the luncheon keynote at the 2026 COFI Convention under the session title “View from Ottawa: Navigating the New North,” offering delegates a public opinion researcher’s read on the state of Canadian politics, the national mood, and what both mean for the forestry sector. The session was moderated by Zara Rabinovitch, Vice President of Sustainability and Public Affairs at COFI. Anderson, who has worked with the forestry sector since the mid-1990s and described the past year as the most significant period of change he has observed in four decades of public affairs work, organized his remarks around three themes: the shift in Canada’s political life, the mood of the public, and what he called the forest and the trees — his observations on where forestry sits in the current federal landscape. On federal politics, Anderson said Canadians have moved decisively away from performative politics toward a demand for serious leadership and serious solutions.

Corey Hogan, Parliamentary Secretary to the Minister of Energy and Natural Resources, delivered the federal government’s address at the 2026 COFI Convention Thursday morning, telling delegates that Canada’s forest sector stands at a genuine moment of transformation — and that the federal government intends to be an active partner in navigating it. Representing the riding of Calgary Confederation and serving on the House of Commons Standing Committee on Natural Resources, Hogan outlined more than $2 billion in federal measures announced since April 2025 and made a new $4 million funding announcement tied to a BC-based company. …NRCan’s Investments in Forest Industry Transformation, known as IFIT — Hogan announced $4 million for Atlas Engineered Products, a BC-based company building a new robotics-enabled wood components manufacturing facility in Clinton, Ontario. The facility is designed to improve precision, reduce material waste, and produce engineered structural components intended to accelerate housing construction timelines across Canada. Hogan described it as exactly the kind of project the government wants to see more of.

• In related news: Canada supports new advanced wood manufacturing facility

BC Minister of Forests Ravi Parmar used his address at the 2026 COFI Convention to lay out what he described as the key objectives that will define his work as minister over the coming months — anchored by a vision for a working forest that moves British Columbia away from the permit-by-permit, boom-and-bust model that has defined the sector for decades. The session, moderated by COFI President and CEO Kim Haakstad, also included Deputy Minister of Forests Makenzie Leine, who joined the stage for a question-and-answer period that drew heavily from audience submissions and covered tenure obligation costs, BCTS reform, DRIPA, and the immediate challenge of moving fibre. …Parmar said his job is to work with industry and all British Columbians to chart a path that delivers good-paying, family-supporting jobs, and that he is unapologetic about that work. He identified six key objectives that will guide his ministry: defending forestry jobs and the communities that depend on them; building a competitive value-added forest economy; creating healthier, more resilient forests to protect communities from wildfire; forging partnerships to compete in global markets; and protecting watersheds, biodiversity, and wildlife through responsible stewardship.

• Related news in BIV: BC minister pushes Ottawa to stand up for ailing forestry sector

Regional Chief Terry Teegee of the BC Assembly of First Nations used his opening keynote address at the 2026 COFI Convention to deliver a frank assessment of the current state of the relationship between First Nations and the provincial government — describing it as being at a very low point — and to issue a clear call for the full implementation of the Declaration on the Rights of Indigenous Peoples Act, rejecting what he characterized as a proposal to suspend it in all but name. Teegee, who is serving his third term as Regional Chief and has been in the role for nine years, opened by acknowledging the broader economic context facing the sector. He cited 15,000 jobs lost in BC since 2022 and 21 permanent or indefinite mill closures since 2023, and noted that fibre supply constraints are reducing economic viability at the same time that regulatory complexity and costs are increasing. He said the current pressures are structural changes putting pressure on every part of the system, but that moments of pressure test whether governments stay grounded in sound policy and cohesive strategy. Challenges, he said, should not be used to justify decisions that create more instability in the long term.

Four of BC’s leading forest sector CEOs delivered a frank and at times sobering assessment of the industry’s current state at the 2026 COFI Convention, telling delegates that conditions are among the most difficult any of them have encountered in careers spanning more than three decades. The session, moderated by Bridgitte Anderson, President and CEO of the Greater Vancouver Board of Trade, brought together Susan Yurkovich, President and CEO of Canfor; Sean McLaren, President and CEO of West Fraser; John Mohammed, President and Owner of A&A Trading Ltd.; and Steven Hofer, President and CEO of Western Forest Products. The panel was structured around questions, with the CEOs offering distinct perspectives shaped by their different roles across the sector’s value chain. …On current operating conditions, the panelists were unified in their assessment. Hofer said this is the most challenging business environment for a BC forest products company he has encountered in 33 years. …Yurkovich said BC used to be the last company standing in a downturn — with well-placed fibre, excellent sawmills, and skilled workers. That has changed. BC is now the first down.

Bryan Yu, AVP and Chief Economist at Central 1 Credit Union, opened the 2026 COFI Convention’s macroeconomic outlook session by telling delegates that Canada and BC are navigating what he described as an era of poly-crises — with a Middle East conflict, ongoing trade pressures, and structural domestic weaknesses all converging simultaneously. His assessment was cautious across virtually every major indicator, with forestry among the sectors he identified as facing both immediate and longer-term headwinds. Yu said the Middle East conflict, now in its sixth week at the time of his address, had driven oil prices sharply higher reflecting the significance of the Strait of Hormuz as a chokepoint for roughly 20% of global oil supply. A ceasefire had briefly pushed prices down by approximately $20 in a single day, but Yu said the world is already in a different place than it was six weeks ago. Higher oil prices, he said, are here to stay in the near term and are inflationary, though he was clear this is not a hyperinflationary environment comparable to 2008-09 or the period following Russia’s 2022 invasion of Ukraine.

The BC Council of Forest Industries launched its 2026 annual convention Wednesday evening with an opening reception at the JW Marriott Parq Vancouver, drawing what COFI President and CEO Kim Haakstad described as 650 delegates expected over the three-day event — making it Western Canada’s largest gathering of forestry sector leaders. Haakstad and Andrew James, Partner at KPMG and sponsor representative for the evening, both took to the podium to welcome attendees and frame the days ahead around the conference theme: “Forestry is a Solution.” Haakstad welcomed delegates and acknowledged the sponsors supporting the convention, with particular recognition of KPMG as the sponsor of the opening reception.

James developed the theme at greater length, describing it as both a statement of fact and a strategic assertion — a necessary counterpoint to public narratives that tend to focus on the sector’s constraints rather than its contributions. Speaking to an audience that included forestry professionals, industry executives and government representatives, he argued that forestry functions as a solution across several distinct dimensions. For rural and Indigenous communities in BC, he said, the sector provides a foundation for sustainable economic development, skilled employment and long-term community resilience. On climate, he pointed to renewable materials, carbon storage and responsible forest management as areas where forestry contributes directly to environmental objectives. And on innovation, he noted ongoing industry investment in new technologies, products and operating models as evidence of the sector’s capacity for adaptation.