Rik Aikman, Environmental Coordinator for Buchanan Forest Products in Ontario and chair of the Ontario SFI Implementation Committee, responds to our questions regarding challenges facing the forest products industry in Ontario.
Q. Can you discuss the forest product industry's level of reliance on stable, competitively priced raw materials. We are all well aware of the Canadian crisis, and the fact that currency exchange and housing market declines have hurt Canadian industry, but what about the upstream end--timber supply? Has loss of wood to fire, insects, flooding, or policy had any significant negative effect on your businesses? If so, what do you recommend to alleviate those effects?
A. A stable and reliable supply of quality wood fibre is critical to any long-term forestry-based business model, and in Ontario – as elsewhere, a continued supply is critical to the health of the forest industry as well as the socio-economic well-being within the regions of the province that it helps support.
