Derek Nighbor
Despite the challenges abound, Canada has every reason to remain ambitious about the future of its forest sector. We have a renewable resource, skilled workers, world-class forestry expertise, established manufacturing capacity, and deep roots in communities across the country. Forestry is one of Canada’s natural advantages and a longstanding economic pillar, supporting jobs, exports, Indigenous economic participation, and regional economies from coast to coast. There is broad political agreement on the sector’s importance. …Canada’s forest products sector is navigating a difficult period. Trade disputes continue, markets are shifting, and operating costs are rising. Those pressures are compounded by made-in-Canada barriers: overlapping rules, slow decisions, uncertain access to usable wood, and transportation costs that make it harder for Canadian producers to compete.
The Forest Sector Transformation Task Force has brought these challenges into sharper focus. Its report makes clear that transformation will require more than isolated programs or one-off projects. It calls for stable access to cost-competitive fibre, modernization at scale, stronger trade infrastructure and market access, and coordinated action to support workers and communities. Taken together, those recommendations reinforce a basic point: retooling mills, developing new products, and reaching new markets depend on predictable operating conditions from the forest floor through to the customer. The playbook is on the table. …By the end of this year, the federal government should be able to point to legislative and regulatory work underway, clearer federal-provincial coordination, more predictable timelines, practical steps to reduce duplication, and meaningful action on the cost and reliability of moving goods. …Now we need to move forward with urgency.
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Richmond Hill, Ontario, Canada – Dense evergreen plantations in Canada’s boreal forest absorb so much winter sunlight that the resulting surface warming can offset 6 to 20 percent of the climate benefit they are credited with. Canada’s current carbon accounting frameworks measure the carbon stored but largely omit the heat absorbed by these forests, according to a new Policy Brief from the United Nations University Institute for Water, Environment and Health (UNU-INWEH). The result is inflated mitigation estimates and public investment in forests that may not deliver the cooling they promise. The Policy Brief “