Canadian timber experts visit London

British Columbia forestry chiefs were among the Canadian contingent in London for the launch of the “Vancouverism: Westcoast Architecture + City-Building” exhibition in London.

Canadian timber species and expertise in timber engineering were being promoted to architects at the event at Canada House, Trafalgar Square.

TTJ caught up with Ken Baker and Jason Martin of Forestry Innovation Investment (FII), an organisation that promotes British Columbia (BC) wood products and forest practices internationally.

FII CEO Ken Baker said FII wanted to make people aware that the BC forest industry had environmental answers to their requirements, rather than the simple promotion of products.

He said BC’s expertise in timber engineering was evident in a plethora of projects for the Vancouver 2010 Winter Olympics, including the Richmond Oval speed skating venue, the curling arena and the Vancouver Convention Centre, which will host the Olympic media centre.

Mr Baker admitted that the BC wood products industry was currently on the ropes with people talking about “the worst market conditions ever”, though he said reasonable demand may return in 2010.

He said Canada had suffered a host of temporary sawmill shutdowns and workers being laid off, with US softwood duties, the dollar exchange rate, poor US housing market and the mountain pine beetle epidemic all contributing to the mills’ poor economic outlook.

“The projection is the available housing inventory in the US will not taken up for the next couple of years at least,” said Mr Baker. “Perhaps 2010 will see a return to reasonable demand.”

Mr Baker said mills certified to the Canadian Standards Association’s (CSA) forest certification scheme were looking at creating a marketing scheme to raise awareness of the CSA brand. One of the biggest problems for certified mills was the “invisibility” of the Canadian CSA brand in the market, he said.

“It’s a perfectly robust system and has been endorsed by PEFC.”

He also said 50% of the value of BC’s mill production was value-added, while land-use agreements with environmental groups and First Nations had reduced environmental pressure on the industry.

FII’s Jason Martin said the Vancouverism exhibition event was to introduce UK architects to innovative use of BC wood product and demonstrate how the products are pushing what’s possible with building envelopes.

“BC wood products have a strong hold in the US residential market, but we are looking to get the use of wood into commercial buildings,” he said.