Tree Talk Blog

So how do you connect with the next generation?  What do they want? How do they communicate?  Where do they get their information about jobs and how do they make decisions about careers?

The Green Dream Internship Program was design by FPAC and our member companies to raise awareness among young college and university students ― to tell them about job opportunities in the forest sector.  It was designed to connect the industry with the next generation of workers and help young people become aware and enthused about a career in the forest industry.

Given some of the bad news stories about the forest industry over the previous decade, I often get quizzical looks from people when I tell them that we need to hire at least 60,000 new employees from general labourers to highly specialized engineers by the year 2020.

​The offices of the Forest Products Association of Canada (FPAC) are located in downtown Ottawa just a few blocks from Parliament Hill.  Our business is to be the voice for the forest industry and represent the industry’s views to the federal government so it makes sense that we are located in Ottawa.  

Today, most Canadians do not think of the national capital as a ‘lumber town’ but in fact, the history of the Ottawa valley was, in large part, built on lumber.  While the lumber business isn’t the dominant employer in the Ottawa Valley today, there are still a number of operating saw mills and some pulp and paper production in the area.

Canada is a trading nation.  We export over $454 billion of products around the world every year and forest products make up a significant percentage of total Canadian exports.  In fact, through much of the 20^th century, forest products were the dominant export from Canada.

As part of our work in Ottawa, FPAC represents the forest industry’s position on various trade issues and helps our member companies with trade concerns.  So I was both pleased and honoured to be asked to join Minister of International Trade Ed Fast at a private luncheon for the outgoing Ambassador of Japan, Kaoru Ishikawa.

​When I speak with people about what I do at the Forest Products Association of Canada, I tend to get two, almost contradictory, reactions.

First, almost everyone is genuinely interested in the forest sector.  But I also notice another reaction.  People drift away from me at family gatherings and other social functions if I talk about the details of what we actually do to lobby for the forest industry in Ottawa.

People are interested in the forest industry; they just don’t have much interest in the process of lobbying government.

In this week’s blog I want to tell you about one example of what we do on a regular basis in Ottawa on behalf of the forest sector.  But I warn you―it is usually at this point at a party when people say to me that they have to re-fill their glass.