Investment in Transformation, Commitment to Taller Wood Buildings Welcomed by Forest Industry

OTTAWA, April 4, 2013 /CNW/ - The Forest Products Association of Canada (FPAC) is pleased with today's announcements by the Government of Canada under the landmark Investments in Forest Industry Transformation program as well as its commitment to market development and taller wood buildings.

The Minister of Natural Resources, Joe Oliver, announced $19.5 million dollars in IFIT funding towards five projects worth a total of $70 million. He also announced $10.9 million for the Expanding Markets Opportunities Program.

"It is crucial to have the government as a partner to develop first commercial demonstrations of promising technologies for forest products companies.  This will help us reach our Vision2020 goal of producing an additional $20 billion in economic activity from new products and diversified markets by the end of the decade," says the President and CEO of FPAC, David Lindsay.

Under IFIT, Millar Western Forest Products of Whitecourt Alberta will get $6.75 million to help develop a waste-to-energy technology that will generate green energy from pulp mill effluent. Tolko Industries in Meadow Lake Saskatchewan will get $4.9 million as part of its goal to become the first facility in North America to produce specialty and commodity-oriented strand board on one production line, while enhancing quality and performance of the final product.

"These projects represent the potential outlined in the Bio-Pathways and Construction Value Pathway studies led by FPAC.  Forest product companies can innovate by using wood fibre to produce bio-products such as green energy, or to manufacture value added lumber products such as reinforced wood and prefabricated materials," says Lindsay.

FPAC also applauds the government for reiterating its commitment to be a world leader in taller wood buildings.

FPAC provides a voice for Canada's wood, pulp, and paper producers nationally and internationally in government, trade, and environmental affairs. The $57-billion-a-year forest products industry represents 2% of Canada's GDP and is one of Canada's largest employers operating in hundreds of communities and providing 230,000 direct jobs across the country.

For more on Vision2020 go to: http://www.fpac.ca/vision2020
For more on our Pathways study: http://www.fpac.ca/index.ee1.php/en/value-pathways/

SOURCE: FOREST PRODUCTS ASSOCIATION OF CANADA