Tuesday Jan 05, 2010

By Daily Gleaner

Are you building in 2010?

Think wood first.

That's the message from the New Brunswick Forest Products Association, which is trying to encourage a greater use of wood in construction. It's sound advice for a province that has 5.9 million hectares of productive forested land and shipped $1.25 billion of forest products in 2008.

But the industry has fallen on hard times recently because of lower demand due to the global recession. Mills have closed and, according to the Department of Finance, employment in the sector declined by 22.7 per cent from January to September in 2009.

A wood first strategy would help support 14 communities and 13,000 direct jobs that rely on the forestry industry. We have an abundant natural resource and a large, professional industry that needs new revenue streams, so why not wood first?

For many years, the issue was cost. It was cheaper to build with steel. As well, steel is much stronger than wood and is more fire-resistant. But wood does have its advantages.

In October, we told you the story of Ying Hei Chui, a University of New Brunswick forestry professor who is the scientific director of the Innovative Wood Products and Building Systems Strategic Network. The research network is studying the advantages of using wood for building medium-rise structures:
* wood is cheaper;
* there is a shorter construction period when using wood;
* and the lighter weight of wood, as opposed to steel, means lower costs for foundation construction.

Advantages such as these were enough for the City of Fredericton to consider wood in 2008 as a building material for its new southside arena, the Grant * Harvey Centre.
At the time, community services director Wayne Tallon said there once was a 40 per cent premium for using wood instead of steel, but not anymore. The city eventually decided to go with steel due to the strength needed for the arena's crossbeams.
It's not just New Brunswick that is reconsidering using wood for more construction projects.
British Columbia has fought a long war against mountain pine beetles. The pests have caused considerable damage to its vast forests.

B.C. passed the Wood First Act into law last year, which specifies wood has to be used as a primary building material for all provincially funded buildings. B.C. also allows residential buildings up to six storeys to be framed in wood, as opposed to the national standard of up to four storeys.
Quebec has also made similar moves to mandate the use of wood to construct public buildings.
So why not wood first in New Brunswick? It will help to support an important, yet struggling, local industry.

We don't think such a measure has to be legislated - people should be free to choose the building material that works for them. It's the forest products association's job to convince people that wood is the right building material to use.
For a province that relies so heavily on its forestry resource, wood first should be top of mind.

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