46 | Sector Focus: North America
SUMMARY
■ In January, Canada’s softwood lumber production increased 10% year-on-year
■ The UK is Canada’s most important commercial trading partner in Europe
■ Between January 2020 and January 2021 Canadian lumber exports rose 129%.
■ The UK was the sixth largest export market for Canadian lumber
CANADA RISES TO COVID CHALLENGE
The Canadian forestry and timber sector checked competitive interests at the door to maintain urgently needed supply through the pandemic, including to the UK writes Derek Nighbor, president and CEO of the Forest Products Association of Canada
Above: FPAC president and CEO Derek Nighbor
TTJ | May/June 2021 |
www.ttjonline.com
The Canadian forest products sector, like many industries in this country and around the world, has faced unprecedented challenges over the past year because of Covid-19. The struggle for all of us to find our way started when the World Health Organisation declared a global pandemic in early March 2020. The initial challenge was threefold: we needed to ensure our people’s safety, keep our critical supply chain moving, and provide consumers with basic necessities. The sector sought out and embraced its role as an essential industry, and safely delivered sustainably sourced, forest-based products that people needed during the pandemic. Things like lumber and wood products for construction and pulp for medical masks, hospital gowns, toilet paper, and sanitary wipes have never been in greater demand. We immediately recognised that protecting the health and safety of our workers would be essential to meeting these challenges head on. Forest Products Association of Canada (FPAC) member companies checked their competitive interests at the door and pursued a common vision to keep everyone safe and sustain operations. More than 200,000 workers in over 600 communities brought forward a host of additional measures, effectively demonstrating our deeply engrained commitment to health and safety. As the important work continued, Canada’s forest sector leadership moved swiftly to work with partners in government, labour, and
across the supply chain to ensure we kept essential products moving. We shifted gears to enable recovery by working with the federal government on key priorities which included:
• Ensuring forest sector workers, families and communities received the support they
would require as we pushed through the pandemic;
• fast-tracking innovation to further transform our industry and expand our
product offerings;
• growing markets for Canadian wood and wood fibre-based products here at home
and around the world; and,
• kick-starting capital investment and job opportunities by securing greater certainty
and long-term access to the working forest while advancing our world-leading sustainable forest management credentials.
In the initial stages of the pandemic, the forest sector’s role in the manufacture of personal protective equipment (PPE) came into clear focus. It became evident that premium reinforced pulp from Canada’s northern forests was a key input to manufacturing medical masks – and underlined that we needed to do everything possible to leverage our renewable, home- grown resources to provide for families during a time of urgent need. Earlier this year, FPInnovations, a Canadian research and development centre, announced the successful development of an eco-friendly,
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