BC Hydro executive vice-president Susan Yurkovich will become the new president and chief executive officer of the Council of Forest Industries on Sept. 14, COFI announced today. Yurkovich will replace James Gorman, who has accepted a new position as vice-president of Vancouver-based wood products company West Fraser. Gorman joined COFI in September 2013 after previously…
The Possibilities Are Wide Open NICOLE LEIBEL “The better I do my job, the better everything else runs for everybody else.” Nicole Leibel moved from British Columbia to the Manitoba Winnipeg town of Swan River in 1987. Starting as a laborer at the Louisiana Pacific Canada mill, she worked her way up to a quality…
The Board of the Forest Products Association of Canada (FPAC) is launching an executive search for a new President and CEO. The current office-holder, David Lindsay, has announced his intention to move on by the end of 2015 to return to the Toronto area to be closer to his family. Lindsay has led FPAC since…
There was free fried chicken deep in the woods on McLellans Mountain on Monday. The chicken came free with the brand new $450,000 forwarder delivered to Next Generation Forest Management Ltd. The eight-wheel-drive machine, which picks up logs cut by a harvester and delivers them to tractor-trailer trucks waiting at roadside, is the third new…
An aggressive attack on a large forest fire near Kenora, Ont. was effective, but crews will still be working on it for a while. The fire grew under high winds on Saturday, but according to the Ministry of Natural Resources and Forestry, it is not a threat to any community. Ten fire ranger crews are…
Northwestern Ontario’s recovering forestry sector continues to be reflected in solid contracts for mill and logging workers, even though it sometimes involves tough negotiations. About 550 plant and woodlands employees who work at Dryden’s Domtar pulp mill voted in favour of a new four-year collective agreement this week that provides decent wage increases and $1,000…
Canada’s biggest railway reached a last-minute tentative agreement with one of its unions on Monday, averting a lockout that threatened to delay imports from Asia and compound a U.S. West Coast port logjam. Canadian National Railway Co and Unifor, the union representing its 4,800 mechanical, clerical and trucking workers, struck a deal just before the…
Nanaimo registered professional forester Morgan Kennah was chosen by her peers to sit on the Association of B.C. Forest Professionals council. She is one of two new members voted onto the council by the provincial body representing forestry professionals that chose a new council at the B.C. Forest Professionals’ 67th Annual Conference, which wrapped up…
Canadian National Railway and Unifor are set to resume contract talks Monday in the face of a threat by the company to lock out nearly 5,000 employees. Statements from both sides said there were high-level discussions on Sunday and the two sides have agreed to continue talking. The railway said Friday it intends to lock…
If not for some inspired thinking from a handful of rank-and-file employees, Canfor House, a popular attraction at Canada Winter Games Plaza, might not have been there at all. As Canfor Pulp president Brett Robinson put it, the idea originated about a year-and-a-half ago when the conversation turned to the Games during a company function….