TORONTO – In honour of Canada’s 150th birthday and to celebrate Ontario’s sustainable forest products sector, Ontario Forest Industries Association (OFIA) partnered with Habitat for Humanity GTA as an Official Wood Sponsor at the Pinery Trail site in Toronto (140 Pinery Trail).
OFIA’s forestry community – including Weston Forest, the Honourable Kathryn McGarry, Minister of Natural Resources, members of provincial and municipal government, Indigenous leaders and the Carpenters’ Union Local 27 – rolled up their sleeves to help build 15 homes with Ontario wood. “Building with wood is just as important to the members of our Union as it is to the forest sector,” explained Mike Yorke, president of Carpenters’ Union Local 27.
Jamie Lim, president and CEO of OFIA, explains, “The whole objective of the event was to celebrate, not only Canada and Ontario’s 150th birthday, but also to celebrate forestry because forestry is older than Canada. This is a sector that’s renewable, like farming – we plant, we cut and we repeat and it is an honour to have OFIA’s member companies here (Pinery Trail).”
“We, at Habitat for Humanity, are just so thrilled that the OFIA chose to partner with us as their way of celebrating this phenomenal history of leadership in our country,” adds Habitat for Humanity GTA’s CEO, Ene Underwood. “The forest industry is the perfect partner for us. We can’t raise a wall, we can’t put a roof over the head of a low-income, working family without the wood industry.”
To recognize the Ontario forest sector’s contribution to helping build Canada for more than 150 years, and showcase its sustainable wood products, OFIA created a short video from the Pinery Trail build days. You can view the video on our media centre page, here.