FPAC provides a voice for Canada’s wood, pulp, paper, and wood-based bioproducts producers nationally and internationally in government, trade, and environmental affairs. As an industry with annual revenues exceeding $97B, Canada’s forest products sector is one of the country’s largest employers operating in hundreds of communities, providing 200,000 direct jobs, and over 370,000 indirect jobs across the country. Our members are committed to collaborating with Indigenous leaders, government bodies, and other key stakeholders to develop a cross-Canada action plan aimed at advancing forest health, while supporting workers, communities, and our environment for the long term.
Canada’s forest products sector is in a unique position to be part of the solution in addressing the impacts of climate change. Through innovative practices and active forest management, the forest sector is part of the solution to regenerate important habitats, make communities safer, and increase carbon storage in the forest and in renewable products. We believe that only a cooperative, public-private collaboration can provide the momentum to overcome today’s challenges. That’s because the forest products sector — and our country as a whole — have arrived at a moment of truth, one where our collective decisions will make a tremendous difference in how our country moves forward in an era of shifting markets, fast-changing technologies, and intensifying environmental needs.
Our association and members are looking to partner with decision makers on collective action in support of wide-ranging goals and objectives that will recognize and support the transformative progress forest products companies have made in forest management, carbon reduction, and the creation of an innovative, more sustainable economic future for Canada.
We’re ready to do our part to move Canada towards a greener tomorrow and a net-zero future.
Canada’s forest sector strongly backs the federal government’s goal of net-zero emissions by 2050 and is positioned to be an industry leader in helping our country achieve this target. Since the early 1990s, Canada’s forest sector has reduced its GHG emissions by close to 70%. And by 2030, through the sustainable management of our forests, the decarbonization of our manufacturing and supply chains, and the carbon stored in wood products, our sector is poised to pull the equivalent of 30 megatons of carbon dioxide from the atmosphere every year, putting our country on the path to meeting our net-zero emissions targets. We are laser-focused on solutions that demonstrate how innovation, family-supporting jobs, and positive environmental outcomes can co-exist. We are already world leaders in reforestation and sustainable forest management, as well as in watershed and biodiversity conservation — and we are always challenging ourselves to do even more. Our researchers are constantly working to bring to market new, sustainable uses for wood products — from tall wood buildings to bioplastics, from car parts to bioadhesives, from fabrics to biofuels — to power the lives of Canadians and to export to countries around the world.
Canada’s forest products industry provides over 200,000 family-supporting jobs that help workers raise a family and build a future — often in northern and rural communities where limited job opportunities exist. We are committed to ensuring that forest sector workers have access to the cutting-edge training and tools they need to keep working in this dynamic and evolving sector. As we work to build the workforce of tomorrow we support advancing the skilled trades agenda, and are finding new ways to increase participation in our workforce. With 11,600 Indigenous workers and over 1,400 Indigenous-owned businesses in our sector, we are one of the largest employers of Indigenous peoples in Canada. And through programs like #TakeYourPlace, Women in Wood, the Greenest Workforce, and Free To Grow in Forestry, we are committed to building an inclusive sector, one that supports the growth of women, Indigenous Peoples, new Canadians, and youth as leaders in a new, green economy.
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As we envision a more inclusive, sustainable, and prosperous Canada, the forest sector and its people are well-positioned to be one of the federal government’s most collaborative, solutions-based economic partners. We have over 140 shovel-ready projects worth over $1.5 billion that will create green, good-paying jobs to support our families and accelerate Canada’s trajectory towards a growing, green economy. Through our commitment to innovation, our resiliency, and our long-term view of forest management and growth, the forest products sector is in a unique position to drive Canada’s post-pandemic economic recovery while providing solutions to build an even more sustainable and lower-carbon economy. By using the power of Canada’s forests and our world-leading commitment to sustainable forest management we can secure inclusive growth, strengthen rural and northern communities, and help power Canada along its path to a ‘net-zero’ carbon economy by 2050.
