Two weeks ago, Todd Paglia, executive director of U.S.-based radical environmental organization ForestEthics, sent a letter of warning to Richard Garneau, CEO of Montreal-based Resolute Forest Products. Paglia declared that he was effectively banishing Resolute, a forestry giant with 7,700 employees and 19 pup and paper mills in Canada, the U.S. and Asia, from the…
There were a few months early in 2015 when the U.S. housing market didn’t look so great. That dragged down a wide range of stocks, but the data has picked up since then, making housing an attractive opportunity for investors seeking value in the U.S. equity market. One way to play this trend is through…
A staff scientist at Science North isn’t sure if there will be a spruce budworm infestation next year, but says we’re due. Recent predictions of a moderate to severe infestation in northern Ontario may not materialize, Jenny Fortier said. The spruce budworm feeds on new growth on trees and can cause substantial damage — and outbreaks of…
Forester Milton Davies spent an exasperating summer watching road contractors slice the roots of American elms on the boulevards throughout his neighbourhood of Queen Alexandra. Buttress roots holding up 15-metre-tall, 10-tonne trees have been cut and left bare, delicate feeder roots that sent water and nutrients up the trunk have been torn out, all to…
The City of Montreal, with help from Natural Resources Canada, is continuing its uphill battle against the emerald ash borer — this time by introducing a disease to the species that will hopefully kill the beetles off. “Right now, we have no way to control the emerald ash borer. It’s living freely with no predators and…
As B.C. spends hundreds of millions fighting one of the province’s worst wildfire seasons, critics are questioning the relatively small amount earmarked for wildfire prevention and whether those funds are being used efficiently. Following devastating wildfires in 2003, the province provided nearly $68 million over 10 years for wildfire prevention for communities that have…
Rain may have cooled off Saskatchewan’s wildfire situation, but the province is not out of the woods yet, environment officials say. Hundreds of Canadian Forces members were leaving the fire zone in the province’s north Monday and there are fewer active fires than last week. But with 98 fires still burning, the battle to protect northern…
With summer on us, things are heating up and it’s not only the weather. One thing that would be nice to keep from becoming overheated is the rhetoric around the Trans Pacific Partnership, a trade deal comprised of 12 Asia-Pacific nations, including Canada, the U.S. and Japan. The TPP has been in the news recently,…
Domtar Corporation (NYSE: UFS) (TSX: UFS) today announced the partial redemption of certain notes and a new debt financing. Domtar Corporation has elected to redeem on August 20, 2015, the redemption date, $55 million in aggregate principal amount of its 9.5% Notes due 2016, representing 59.16% of the outstanding notes, and $215 million in aggregate principal amount of its 10.75%…
Not so long ago, Chad Wasilenkoff was a darling of the stock market, having found a way to transform money-losing old paper mills into low-cost producers of rayon that sent shares of his Fortress Paper Ltd. soaring on the TSX. But Fortress fell out of favour, done in by steep import duties in key markets,…