Daily Archives: December 17, 2019

Today’s Takeaway

Jim Pattison fails in bid to take Canfor private

December 17, 2019
Category: Today's Takeaway

Canfor and Great Pacific terminate their agreement as Jim Pattison fails in his bid to take Canfor private. Other companies in the news include: EACOM’s pension agreement; Weyerhaeuser’s timberland sale; and New-Indy’s product-change. In preparation for Nova Scotia’s decision on Northern Pulp‘s effluent plant, the fed’s forgo the need for an environmental assessment. Meanwhile, good news on the US housing front as starts and prices rise. 

In other news: post-COP25, the EU plans to re-assess the carbon neutrality designation of biomass energy; not all Alberta pines are created equal when it comes to the beetle; and FPInnovations agrees to share research with Sweden on harvesting automation.

Finally, looking for an inexpensive Christmas gift? How about a free subscription to the Tree Frog News for your friends, family (and colleagues).

Kelly McCloskey, Tree Frog Editor

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Business & Politics

Hamper distribution continues this week for striking Island loggers

By Erin Haluschak
The Comox Valley Record
December 16, 2019
Category: Business & Politics
Region: Canada, Canada West

Tamara Meggitt

The holiday season aside, this week is a very busy week for Tamara Meggitt. As one of the organizers for Loonies For Loggers, Meggitt, along with her husband and other volunteers, are packing the final boxes to prepare for distribution to families across Vancouver Island. …The initiative, which began in early fall, focused on basic necessities, along with Christmas presents for children, available to families of striking workers. …“We’ve got more than $80,000 in (cash) donation, about $10,000 in food donations, $20,000 in toys and thousands of dollars in gift cards.” She added logging plays an instrumental role for many Island families particularly those in the north Island.

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Jim Pattison’s $1-billion bid to take full control of forestry giant Canfor fails

By David Carrigg
The Vancouver Sun
December 16, 2019
Category: Business & Politics
Region: Canada, Canada West

Jim Pattison

Lumber giant Canfor has terminated an arrangement agreement between the company and Jim Pattison’s Great Pacific Capital Corporation. The decision came despite a special committee of Canfor’s board previously supporting the almost $1-billion offer to take full control of the publicly listed company and take it private. Great Pacific Capital Corp already owns 51 per cent of Canfor, but to get the go-ahead for the $16-a-share cash offer, more than 50 per cent of the remaining shareholders had to back the offer. …About 45 per cent of the minority voters were in favour, but that fell five per cent short. …All of the directors, other than Barbara Hislop, and certain senior officers of Canfor had agreed to support the takeover bid. However, recently there have been dissenters. Investment company Letko Brosseau & Associates, that holds 4.8 per cent of stock, said the offer undervalued the company.

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Pattison’s bid for Canfor faces mounting opposition

By Ashley Robinson
BNN Bloomberg
December 16, 2019
Category: Business & Politics
Region: Canada, Canada West

Jim Pattison

The bid by billionaire Jim Pattison to take Canfor Corp. private is facing growing opposition from shareholders, though the investment firm has no plans to sweeten its bid for the Canadian lumber company. Several investors have balked at Pattison’s offer of $16 a share, saying it undervalues the firm that traded at more than twice that price in 2018. Proxy votes were due today, with results being released later and a final vote on Wednesday in Vancouver still possible. “I don’t know” if the vote will go through, Glen Clark, president of The Jim Pattison Group that controls Canfor, said in a phone interview. “Fairly large shareholders have indicated that they prefer to stay in, and from a Jim Pattison point of view we’re quite relaxed about it because we control the majority of the company in any event.”

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Canfor and Great Pacific Terminate Arrangement Agreement

By Canfor Corporation
Cision Newswire
December 16, 2019
Category: Business & Politics
Region: Canada, Canada West

VANCOUVER — Canfor Corporation has agreed with Great Pacific Capital Corp… to terminate the previously announced arrangement agreement dated October 28, 2019 with respect to the proposed plan of arrangement of Canfor. Based on the Canfor shareholder votes cast by proxy prior to the December 16, 2019 proxy cutoff, the “majority of the minority” vote required to approve the Arrangement pursuant to Multilateral Instrument 61-101 – Protection of Minority Security Holders in ‎Special Transactions, will not be achieved. Approximately 45% of the votes cast by proxy by minority shareholders as at the proxy cutoff were in favour of the Arrangement.‎ The special meeting of Canfor shareholders… has been cancelled. Pursuant to the Arrangement Agreement, the Purchaser will pay 50% of the actual reasonable out-of-pocket expenses incurred by Canfor in connection with the Arrangement.

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Nova Scotia to rule on mill’s plan to pump effluent into Northumberland Strait

Canadian Press in Ottawa Citizen
December 17, 2019
Category: Business & Politics
Region: Canada, Canada East

HALIFAX — Nova Scotia’s environment minister is expected to release his decision today on a pulp mill’s controversial proposal to pump 85 million litres of treated effluent daily into the Northumberland Strait. Gordon Wilson will rule on a focus report Northern Pulp submitted to the provincial Environment Department in early October on its plan for a proposed effluent treatment plant and 15-kilometre pipeline near Pictou, N.S. The department asked the company for the report in March after then environment minister Margaret Miller determined more information was needed about the project’s impacts. If Wilson approves the project, it will likely spark an outcry from opponents, including the Pictou Landing First Nation, environmental groups and fishermen from across the Maritimes. However, if the minister rejects the company plan, Northern Pulp has said it will close the mill — putting more than 300 employees out of work and creating indirect job losses in the province’s forestry sector.

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No federal assessment for Northern Pulp effluent treatment plan, Ottawa announces

By Aaron Beswick
Cape Breton Post
December 16, 2019
Category: Business & Politics
Region: Canada, Canada East

There will be no federal environmental assessment of Northern Pulp’s proposed effluent treatment facility. Jonathan Wilkinson announced his decision to not designate the facility for the longer federal assessment Monday afternoon. “I am very much aware of concerns that have been raised related to the potential for adverse impacts from the project on marine life…,” said the federal environment minister in a written statement. “It is my expectation that outstanding questions and information gaps will be answered through the provincial environmental assessment process. Should these issues not be sufficiently dealt with through the provincial process, I remain committed to ensuring that they are thoroughly understood and addressed through federal regulatory processes.” The announcement came a day before provincial environment minister Gordon Wilson is set to announce whether to allow Northern Pulp’s controversial plan to treat up 85 million litres of effluent daily and pump it into the Northumberland Strait beside Caribou.

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Eacom Timber workers reach agreement with pension, benefits improvements

Benefits Canada
December 16, 2019
Category: Business & Politics
Region: Canada, Canada East

Employees at Eacom Timber Corp. have a new six-year collective agreement, which includes improvements to the pension and benefits plan. …The collective agreement also includes increases to a pension bridging supplement for workers who retire between ages 60 and 65, according to the union. …“Members of the United Steelworkers Local 1-2010 are satisfied with the agreement that was presented to them, as it was ratified,” said Jacques Jean, the local’s president …“The speed at which we reached this agreement is a testament to the level of collaboration and trust between both parties and our willingness to arrive at a mutually beneficial solution,” said Wade Zammit, chief operating officer at Eacom. “Our people are at the centre of our operations and the focus we place on taking care of them is what makes the sawmill such an attractive place to work.”

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Weyerhaeuser to sell Montana timberlands

By Weyerhaeuser Company
Cision Newswire
December 17, 2019
Category: Business & Politics
Region: United States, US West

SEATTLE, — Weyerhaeuser Company today announced an agreement to sell its 630,000 acres of timberland in Montana to a private timberland investment company for $145 million in cash. The company anticipates minimal tax liability in conjunction with the transaction. “The sale of our Montana acreage is part of our ongoing effort to strategically optimize our timberland portfolio,” said Devin W. Stockfish, president and chief executive officer of Weyerhaeuser. “The transaction includes a diverse mix of softwood species and an existing 110,000-acre conservation easement which preserves public access in perpetuity.” The transaction is subject to customary closing conditions and is expected to be completed in the second quarter of 2020.

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$240M investment will extend production life of York County paper mill

By Ken Elkins
Charlotte Business Journal
December 16, 2019
Category: Business & Politics
Region: United States, US East

CATAWBA, NORTH CAROLINA — A large paper-making plant southeast of Rock Hill is getting a breath of new life with the infusion of $240 million from its new West Coast owner. New-Indy Containerboard will extend the production life of a 63-year-old operation in York County by as much as another 40 years, executives say. The facility, which at last count employed about 430 workers, will convert to the production of containerboard used to make cardboard boxes. Founded as Bowater, the operation is located in Catawba. …Rick Hartman, New-Indy COO, told The Herald in Rock Hill that the tax incentive was key to saving the jobs at the plant. …The plant operated for decades as a pulp and newsprint-making unit of Bowater Inc. and, later …to Resolute Forest Products. …The process of converting the Catawba mill to containerboard from its current coated paper operation should take about 10 months, Hartman told The Herald.

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Finance & Economics

U.S. housing starts rise; permits at 12-1/2-year high

The US Department of Commerce
Reuters in The Financial Post
December 17, 2019
Category: Finance & Economics
Region: Canada, United States

U.S. homebuilding increased more than expected in November and permits for future home construction surged to a 12-1/2-year high as lower mortgage rates continue to boost the housing market and support the broader economy. Housing starts rose 3.2% to a seasonally adjusted annual rate of 1.365 million units last month, with single-family construction racing to a 10-month high and activity in the volatile multi-family sector increasing for a second straight month, the Commerce Department said on Tuesday.

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US House Prices vs. Softwood Lumber Prices: December 2019

By Madison’s Lumber Reporter
Cision Newswire
December 13, 2019
Category: Finance & Economics
Region: Canada, United States

US house prices rose in 3Q 2019, up +1.1 per cent according to the Federal Housing Finance Agency (FHFA) House Price Index (HPI), released November 26. House prices in the US rose +4.9 per cent from 3Q 2018 to 3Q 2019. FHFA’s seasonally adjusted monthly index for September was up +0.6 per cent from August. “According to the latest home price forecast from property data firm CoreLogic, US home prices should tick up by +5.6 per cent by next September—up from the +3.5% jump of this year.” The Case Shiller Home Price Index in the US reached an all-time high of 218.27 Index Points in September of 2019. US house price appreciation inched up slightly in September with year-ago growth in the 20-city composite index rising to 2.1%, up from 2% in August.

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Wood, Paper & Green Building

Paperweek Canada and Biofor International 2020: Digitization for the forest industry

FPInnovations Blog
December 16, 2019
Category: Wood, Paper & Green Building
Region: Canada, Canada East

Digital technologies … are specializing to create high-precision tools for work environments. And the forestry sector is no exception to this trend. Whether it is virtual or augmented reality for forest operations management, or wood-based 3D printing that is achieving increasingly high levels of accuracy, digitization is creating incredible opportunities to transform the management of the forest industry.  In a bio-economy environment, the use of digital technologies in the forest products sector is expected to be fundamental to the transformation of this industry; however, there is still some way to go. As part of the PaperWeek Canada and Biofor International 2020 events, which will be held together in Montreal, February 3-6 … Stéphane Renou, President and CEO of FPInnovations… will present FPInnovations‘ vision of the role that digitization technologies can play in the future of the forest sector as well as its various applications and he will also serve as the moderator of a panel discussion. 

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Forestry

Green economy think tank gives thumbs up to tree planting promise

By Mia Rabson
The Canadian Press in the Prince George Citizen
December 17, 2019
Category: Forestry
Region: Canada

OTTAWA — A green economy think tank at the University of Ottawa says the federal government’s promise to plant two billion trees over the next 10 years is a cheap way to pull greenhouse gases out of the atmosphere. Prime Minister Justin Trudeau promised during the election campaign to spend $3 billion on land and water conservation projects between now and 2030. Among those projects will be planting two billion additional trees. The promise was met with some eye rolls as different parties kept upping the ante on tree planting, including the Green party’s pledge to plant 10 billion trees by 2050. But a government official in Environment Minister Jonathan Wilkinson’s office said negotiations are underway with New Brunswick and other provinces to get new tree planting programs started as early as possible next year.

 

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FPInnovations, Swedish forestry institute sign MOU to advance harvesting automation

FPInnovations Blog
December 12, 2019
Category: Forestry
Region: Canada

Francis Charrette and Magnus Thor

FPInnovations and the Forestry Research Institute of Sweden (Skogforsk) signed a memorandum of understanding (MOU) at the Sweden-Canada Innovation Days symposium held in Montreal in late November. The signing creates an opportunity for the international exchange of research on automated harvesting and advances their respective interests in forestry innovation. The MOU also allows the organizations to combine their research might to work towards solving the common challenges affecting both the Canadian and Swedish forest industries: increase machine productivity to maintain low supply costs, make harvesting safer by developing technology for automated forest machinery, and attract a new generation of forest workers to address a chronic labour shortage. Both organizations have developed their own research projects on automated harvesting to address those challenges. One of FPInnovations’ flagship projects is Forestry 4.0 launched in 2018 to bring automation to the forest sector.

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Pine trees with larger resin ducts better able to survive mountain pine beetle attack

By Bev Betkowski
Folio, University of Alberta
December 16, 2019
Category: Forestry
Region: Canada, Canada West

Not all pine trees are created equal when it comes to fending off their mortal enemy, the mountain pine beetle.  A new University of Alberta study shows that lodgepole pine trees with larger resin ducts survived beetle attacks that killed trees with smaller ducts. Located in the needles, branches, trunk and roots, the ducts act like highways to carry sticky, toxic resin to whatever part of the tree is being attacked.  The discovery, published in Frontiers in Plant Science, sheds new light on why some trees survive mountain pine beetle attacks while others don’t, said lead author Shiyang Zhao, a research assistant in the Faculty of Agricultural, Life & Environmental Sciences. …“It tells us that the tree’s anatomical defences are as critical to its survival as any chemical defences are,” Zhao said.

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Administration’s roadless rule exemption for Tongass National Forest is a special interest boondoggle

By Ruben Gallego, member, Natural Resources Committee
The Hill
December 16, 2019
Category: Forestry
Region: United States, US West

President Trump’s proposal to remove roadless rule protections and allow destructive roadbuilding throughout Alaska’s majestic Tongass National Forest is bad for our environment, bad for taxpayers, and bad for future generations of Americans who deserve to visit and appreciate this beautiful, pristine place. That’s why it is opposed by a majority of Americans and Alaskans, including fisherman, sportsman, local businesses, and tribal nations who have sacred ties to the land, and why the administration should not move forward with this plan.   Spanning 500 miles along Southeast Alaska’s panhandle, the Tongass is defined by thousands of islands, massive old-growth trees—some more than 1,000 years old—and, importantly, 32 federally-recognized Alaska Native Communities who have lived off these lands since time immemorial. The Tongass is also critically important to our fight against climate change, sequestering hundreds of millions of tons of carbon from our atmosphere.

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TAS Liberal Govt accused of ‘secret logging talks’

ABC News, Australia
December 17, 2019
Category: Forestry
Region: International

The Tasmanian Greens are accusing the Liberal state government of engaging in secret talks with the timber industry to log forests previously set aside for protection.  Documents released to the Greens under right to information laws show the industry has written to the government flagging the possibility of logging in forest originally covered under the Tasmanian forest agreement.

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Carbon, Climate & Bioenergy

COP25: EU officials say biomass burning policy to come under critical review

By Justin Catanoso
Mongabay.com
December 16, 2019
Category: Carbon, Climate & Bioenergy
Region: International

MADRID, Spain – Two high-level members of the European Union delegation announced that the carbon neutrality designation given to biomass energy — replacing coal with wood pellets — will come under critical review by the EU as a result of current science showing that biomass burning produces significant amounts of carbon emissions. The unexpected announcement came during a press conference Thursday, December 12, at the 25th United Nations climate summit (COP25). “The issue of biofuels needs to be looked at very carefully,” said Frans Timmermans, executive vice president of the EU and a Dutch politician, in response to a question from Mongabay. “We have to make sure that what we do with biofuels is sustainable and does not do more harm than that it does good.”

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