Port traffic After a decade of growth, traffic through the port remained flat in 2015, according to year-end numbers released by Port Metro Vancouver on Thursday. While imports of container goods and automobiles grew (nine per cent in the case of the latter), a decrease in commodity exports led total traffic to fall from 139 million…
The low Canadian dollar is providing a boost for Corner Brook Pulp and Paper, but its parent company says profits are not soaring. Kruger Inc. vice-president Daniel Archambault said newsprint is sold in U.S. dollars, so the weak loonie is positive for exporters like newsprint companies. ‘There will always be newsprint consumed in the world for many, many years to…
A B.C. First Nation wants to use wood waste from clear-cut logging to support aboriginal financial growth. The initiative attempts to solve several issues — the reliance of northern communities on fossil fuels; providing job opportunities for aboriginal residents; and disposing of hundreds of thousands of tonnes of residual wood left behind by forestry companies….
On a crisp winter day, few scents appeal more than wood smoke, which signals, on a primal level, comfort and even safety. It is hard to imagine the aroma rankling anyone in the middle of February. And yet, smoke from wood-burning fireplaces and stoves is a major source of wintertime smog. It is a health…
The Council of Forest Industries (COFI) congratulates the B.C. government’s tabling of its fourth consecutive balanced budget today. The budget provides critical funding to enhance forest management, rural development and long-term market access. “The government is making an important contribution to enhancing future forest health in B.C. through the establishment of a new $85 million…
Reaction has been mixed after the province eased several compliance items within Northern Pulp’s appeal of its industrial approval. The company followed the provinces’ decision on Feb. 8 by announcing on Feb. 9 that it notified the Supreme Court of Nova Scotia that it was withdrawing the appeal of its industrial approval. Environment Minister Margaret…
Poland’s environment ministry has a plan for a huge increase in logging in Europe’s last great primeval forest, writes Zachary Davies Boren. Officials claim it’s to control bark beetles. But ecologists say the insects are regulated naturally within the forest ecosystem, while logging threatens huge damage to irreplaceable biodiversity. One of Europe’s oldest forests is…
The Softwood Lumber Agreement negotiated by prime minister Stephen Harper’s new government in 2006 expired on Oct. 12, 2015, ending nine years of managed trade with the United States. Canadian exporters of softwood lumber now have free access to the U.S. market after more than a decade of poor conditions: Canadian market share tumbled to…
At least one western province plans to get the jump on the 2016 wildfire season by circling a date on the calendar. Alberta will officially start the season on March 1, a month earlier than usual. On that day, all burning activities in forested areas will require a burning permit, except for campfires, and training…
Municipal leaders along with the agriculture and forestry sector have banded together to launch a bold new strategy called Growing Ontario to celebrate the innovation and contribution provided by the agriculture and forestry sectors to the economy of rural and Northern Ontario. Initiated by the Grain Farmers of Ontario, the Federation of Northern Ontario Municipalities,…