The Honourable Joe Oliver, Minister of Natural Resources, today addressed representatives of Canada’s forest industry at a luncheon speech at PaperWeek 2012 in Montreal.
The Minister highlighted the importance of partnerships, innovation and market expansion to the future of Canada’s forest industry in helping to sustain jobs in rural communities across the country.
ICTORIA - The B.C. government says lumber exports to China have gone through the roof.
It says in the first 11 months of last year, the province had shipped 4.2 billion board feet of lumber to China, exceeding a goal of four billion set four years ago.
Exports are up 200 per cent from 2009, and their value has hit more than one billion dollars.
Jobs Minister Pat Bell calls the numbers astounding, saying about two dozen sawmills across B.C. have re-opened or added shifts partly because of the boost in exports to China.
The government should do more to oversee private-sector forest companies to make sure they do an adequate job of successfully reforesting areas where timber has been harvested, Ontario Auditor General Jim McCarter says in his 2011 Annual Report.
During the last two years, global wood pellet production increased from about nine million tonnes to some 15-16 million tonnes, while apparent consumption expanded from about nine million to 13 million tonnes.
In 2010, estimated global wood pellet production exceeded estimated consumption by about two to three million tonnes, while global pellet production capacity exceeded consumption by around seven to eight million tonnes (including new production facilities under construction but not operating).
After a month of escalating rhetoric from the Harper government and oil industry front groups and confirmation today from internal government documents that the government explicitly identified environmental and aboriginal groups as "adversaries" in its strategy to increase tar sands exports, ForestEthics has launched a petition calling on Canadians to tell the Prime Minister that they won't be bullied into silence on issues that effect their communities, coast, province or environment.
An open letter from the Honourable Joe Oliver, Minister of Natural Resources, on Canada’s commitment to diversify our energy markets and the need to further streamline the regulatory process in order to advance Canada’s national economic interest.
Canada is on the edge of a historic choice: to diversify our energy markets away from our traditional trading partner in the United States or to continue with the status quo.
Developing effective, local partnerships with Aboriginal peoples will be a critical factor in helping the Canadian forest products sector address future labour force requirements, according to a new report from the Forest Products Sector Council (FPSC-CSPF).
Conversation and Collaboration: Building the future Canadian forest products sector with Aboriginal talent highlights the challenges the sector faces and how it can move forward in engaging with Canada’s Aboriginal populations.
Viridis Energy Inc. of Vancouver has purchased Enligna Canada Inc. wood pellet plant in Musquodoboit Valley, Nova Scotia.
The purchase is subject to court approval because Enlinga Canada is in receivership. The plant has been closed since August, 2011.
The assets to be acquired include 20 buildings on four properties with a total of 157 acres and a separate 22 acre wood lot. The facilities houses five pellet presses with the capacity to produce 110,000 tonnes of wood pellets annually.
OTTAWA, Jan. 3, 2012 (RISI) - Beginning in November 2011, another bastion of the Canadian pulp and paper industry fell by the wayside joining sulfite pulp and greenfield newsprint mills. The Bank of Canada began issuing polymer banknotes, beginning with the $100 bill. In March, the new $50 bill will be introduced. By late 2013, the last of the paper bills, $5, $10 and $20, will be phased out. The Bank phased out the $1 and $2 bills long ago in favor of the now famous metal "Loonie" ($1 coin) and "toonie" ($2 coin).
