Local. Business. Intelligence. July 12–18, 2011 • Issue 1133
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NPA’s Suzanne Anton and the looming municipal election hot button: housing 3
Bank robbery business still booming
A coalition of police, merchants, bankers and prosecutors has reduced local bank heist rates, but Metro Vancouver remains North America’s bank robbery capital: 4-5
Vancouver lands major global digital conference 6 ETFs undermining golden opportunities 6 Insider trading action 9 Tech tips for keeping your business organized 13 Big-name golf returns to Vancouver 14 Peddling green goals in the U.S.A.’s Wild West 36
CONSTRUCTION
IN VANCOUVER Quarterly report on B.C.’s construction industry C1-C12
Log export animosity accelerating Root problems: exporting raw logs to markets like China is keeping forestry workers employed, but local mills say their supply of wood is being eroded as the number of B.C. logs exported jumped 63% in the first four months of this year compared with the same period in 2010
Ken Spencer: Vancouver’s godfather of high tech 39 Biggest construction companies C4 Top trade and consumer shows 30
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>B.C. foresters at loggerheads over rapidly increasing raw log trade with Asia >Log exports are helping to underwrite the coastal forest industry, but they’re also making it difficult for local mills to source the wood they need
Business in Vancouver Issue 1133
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3/21/11
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By Joel McKay
C
ritics have decried log exports for years, but proponents say shipments to Asia are helping the coastal forestry sector stay afloat. The total number of logs exported from B.C. increased 63% to 1.8 million cubic metres in the first four months of 2011 compared with the same period in 2010, according to BCStats. Much of that wood has been shipped overseas to Asia where Chinese sawmillers slice western hemlock, cedar and fir into boards to feed that country’s burgeoning manufacturing sector. Opponents have for years said the shipments are akin to exporting jobs, undercutting B.C.’s coastal sawmills. But the Truck Loggers Association (TLA) said those exports make it viable for the province’s foresters to hike into the bush
and harvest trees that otherwise would go untouched. As a result, the entire stand of trees becomes economically viable, feeding sawmills with the fibre they need to manufacture lumber, which then create chips and wood waste that support pulp mills and biomass plants. Dave Lewis, executive director of the TLA, said timber harvesting and delivery creates two jobs for every one job in a B.C. sawmill. Given the sorry state of the forestry sector, none of those jobs would be created without log exports, he explained. “More and more people are starting to understand that, regardless of their political stripes, they’re working right now because of log exports,” said Lewis. The incentive to ship logs to foreign markets largely revolves around price. see Mills, 7
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