Ten days after the Quebec government announced a technical guide on building mass timber buildings up to 12 storeys in height, an institute representing the precast prestressed concrete industry suggested there will be a cost of protecting such buildings from fire, during construction. “We have already heard the insurance industry expressing their concerns of insuring…

The Biomass North Development Centre plans to roll out its region-wide strategy in the coming months to add value to the North’s forestry industry. A North Bay-based biomass advocacy group has resurfaced with a new name and renewed vigour to continue to take Northern Ontario’s forestry sector in a new strategic direction. The former staff…

Conifex Timber Inc. has completed its purchase of a private Delaware company holding exclusive rights to a sawmill and 186 acres of land near El Dorado, AR. The rights to the Arkansas property was acquired for $21 million. The deal, announced Aug. 6, comprised $12.36 million in cash and $8.64 million in vendor mortgage. Conifex…

Owner plans to be in production this fall The Riverstone Plywood Mill in Miramichi, New Brunswick should be back in production this fall. According to the Miramichi Leader, the mill received $2 million from the Atlantic Canada Opportunities Agency (ACOA) on July 31. Owner Jean-Yves Cardinal of Quebec told the newspaper that although the mill had…

New research suggests that Canada’s drought-stricken forests will take years longer to recover from dry weather than previously thought. In a study published in Science magazine, William Anderegg of Princeton University said trees feel the lingering effects of a drought for up to four years. “Drought is always (thought of) as a light switch: when…

An offhand remark about the shortage of wood pellets has translated into a new enterprise for the Haley Street Adult Services Centre. “With all the press around the shortage of wood pellets, somebody said well why don’t we make wood pellets,” explained society executive director Debra MacLean. “Our wood production officer Randall Finnigan came into…

Canada’s wood products industry is benefiting from the ongoing recovery in the U.S. housing and a weaker Canadian dollar, according to The Conference Board of Canada’s latest outlook for Canada’s wood products industry. “The continued recovery in the U.S. housing market is supporting increased demand for Canadian wood products, leading to a 8.7 per cent increase…

The city is poised on the threshold of yet another pioneering effort to reduce greenhouse gas emissions in the community. Utilizing biomass from locally collected wood waste, the city’s electrical utility is investigating a low carbon alternative to heating with natural gas, and fleshing out a plausible business case for constructing a plant to produce…

Robert Brooks has burnt wood to heat his home in Mt. William for 13 years now, but has never had such a hard time getting a load of full-length wood as he has this year. Ordinarily he gets it in April so it’s good and dry. This year he called one person and was told…

Four years ago, Aurora Wood Pellets Ltd. began the development of a 200,000-metric-ton pellet plant in the Northwest Territories of Canada. With two Forestry Management Agreements in hand, CEO Brad Mapes hopes to purchase the site’s land this month. Mapes attributes the reason the project has spanned over the past few years to how AWP…