New Brunswick would do well to look to European countries for guidance on how to take advantage of the bioeconomy. At least that’s the idea BioNB is aiming to get across through Finnish bioeconomy expert Jussi Manninen of the VTT Technical Research Centre in Helsinki, the keynote speaker of the 6th annual Atlantic Biorefinery Conference…
Gordon Ritchie is a former free-trade negotiator, special envoy for softwood lumber, and author of Wrestling with the Elephant: the Inside Story of the Canada-US Trade Wars. In the iconic film, Groundhog Day, the hero is obliged to relive the day’s events over and over again. That also describes the softwood-lumber dispute between Canada and…
Rayonier Advanced Materials will “come to bat” to protect the interests of Tembec in the cross-border battle over softwood lumber, the head of the Florida-based company said Thursday after announcing a friendly takeover of the Quebec forestry firm. The deal, valued at US$807 million including debt, would see the merged entity keep a Canadian headquarters…
Proponents leading the development of a bioeconomy supercluster welcome the federal government’s launch of the Innovation Superclusters Initiative. Such superclusters will help specific high potential Canadian economic strengths to advance technical platforms to enhance their world leadership position. The Canadian bioeconomy covers a wide range of Canadian traditional and non-traditional bio-sourced industrial sectors that employ…
Japan is a good news story for Canada’s wood pellet producers. As recently as 2014, Canada exported just 62,000 tonnes to Japan, but by 2016, this had increased by a whopping 350 per cent to 272,000 tonnes. Canada presently accounts for 78 per cent of Japanese wood pellet imports and we aim to maintain this…
The effort to get Fort McMurray back to normal following last spring’s massive wildfire continued Saturday, as volunteers lined up to help plant trees in the region. Tree Canada president Michael Rosen told the Alberta Morning News that they’re starting by planting trees in the city itself. “We’re not going to have a chance to…
Many in the log hauling industry in B.C. would like to see the province fall in line with other jurisdictions and permit the use of 9-axle configurations. A B.C. Forest Safety Council (BCFSC) panel discussed the benefits and challenges of going from eight to nine axles, which are currently only granted on a case-by-case scenario…
British Columbians need to rethink everything about the way we manage our forests and the products they provide, according to research by the Pacific Institute for Climate Solutions. If we do, the payoff can be substantial. Better forest management, more thorough extraction of wood from harvested areas and a focus on long-lasting wood products could…
An almost century-long endeavour to preserve and enhance York Region, Ont.’s managed forests reached another milestone earlier this year with the LEED Platinum certification of the Bill Fisch Forest Stewardship and Education Centre. Set in the Hollidge Tract in the Town of Whitchurch-Stouffville, the 362-square-metre (4,000-square-foot) single-storey building is the first regionally owned facility to…
A cross-laminated timber (CLT) manufacturer based in St. Mary’s, Ont., will build 30 houses for the First Nations in Grand Rapids, Man. The project is a first for CLT in First Nations housing but the manufacturer suggests there are good reasons to think it won’t be the last. The assembly can save money on building…