TIANJIN, China – China’s green-building objectives may provide opportunities to showcase Canadian softwood lumber, energy efficiency standards and clean technologies. Canada’s Minister of Natural Resources, the Honourable Jim Carr, recently visited the Sino-Canadian Low-Carbon Eco-District in Tianjin, China, which uses Canadian lumber, technology and know-how to help China address climate challenges. Minister Carr participated in…

Canada and the United States remain “quite far apart” on negotiating a softwood lumber settlement, Foreign Affairs Minister Chrystia Freeland said June 12, according to a CBC News story. Freeland offered the blunt assessment before meeting members of Quebec’s forestry sector. Canadian lumber producers have been charged duties for shipping softwood south of the border…

Yukon Premier Sandy Silver, as Chair of the Council of the Federation, is leading a joint mission of Canada’s Premiers to Washington, D.C., from June 6-8. Joining him on the mission will be Ontario Premier Kathleen Wynne, New Brunswick Premier Brian Gallant, Manitoba Premier Brian Pallister, Prince Edward Island Premier Wade MacLauchlan, Newfoundland & Labrador…

Students at Merritt Secondary School are getting a feel for what it’s like to operate heavy machinery used in the forestry and mining industries, reports the Merritt Herald. MSS has brought in simulators from Vancouver Island University, allowing students to practice driving four different types of machines —a dangle head processor, feller bunches, live heel…

The Canadian government today announced it will make $867 million in loans available to the forestry industry, workers and communities impacted by softwood lumber tariffs recently imposed by the United States. The deal includes a series of loans and loan guarantees that will work in concert with provincial efforts to support the industry. “We believe…

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…

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…

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…

uilding tall with structural wood is the aim of many research-minded project teams these days. But the building type is largely outside the scope of current building codes in the U.S., meaning each project requires ample — and often costly — testing to prove it will perform equal to or better than it would if…