The warning came in the final report of a three-year research programme by The Canada Project to re-examine the country’s economy. “Canada’s forest products sector needs renewal,” said Gilles Rhéaume, conference board vice-president.
“Scale matters in this industry and to compete Canadian companies must be able to build larger mills.
“Governments should change timber allocation processes and eliminate interprovincial trade barriers to make super-mills possible. This will mean that older, smaller mills will have to close, and provincial governments should not step in to save them.”
The report urges provincial governments to reform the timber tenure system and eliminate barriers to log trading, as well as modifying taxation and competition policy to support investment in much larger mills than currently exist in Canada.
