Province turns to the Microsoft cloud to update its forest inventory

By Ian Ross
Northern Ontario Business
May 27, 2026
Category: Forestry
Region: Canada East

©KevinHolland LinkedIn

Ontario’s Forest Resources Inventory is getting a high-tech upgrade. The province is providing more than $14 million over the next two years to technologically improve the database on how the province collects, stores and shares information on its 70.5-million hectares of forest. The funding is part of the roll-out of the province’s forestry road map, a 10-year strategy designed to protect the industry, jobs, and reposition the sector to make new products for the domestic market. Ultimately, it will also allow the province’s struggling forest industry to make better data-driven business decisions to stay competitive. Kevin Holland, the province’s associate minister of forestry and forest products, was on hand at the Ontario Forest Research Institute in Sault Ste. Marie May 26 to deliver the news. The Forest Resources Inventory (FRI) is considered the backbone of the entire sustainable forest management system in Ontario.

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