The Probyn Group was founded in 1969 by Ed Probyn. Ed has established the company as a leader in forestry management and one of the largest private operating businesses in the industry. From the day that Ed founded his company, the core strength of The Probyn Group has been the steadfast belief in remaining true to one's word, and a belief in fairness and honesty with everyone that business is conducted with. This philosophy is practiced from the top of the Probyn Group organization down to the many supporting management, operations and staff members working throughout all Probyn Group companies in Canada and the US. They are dedicated to establishing a partnership with their customers and being seen as a reliable resource.

The group includes Probyn Log, TMI Forest Products, AJ Forest Products, Probyn Export, Raintree Specialties, West Coast Moulding, and several other joint venture partnerships. Operations with manufacturing facilities producing over 225 million board feet of Western Red Cedar per annum are based in BC and Washington State. They are headquartered in New Westminster and employ 300 people. They trade over 1 million cubic meters of logs per year in BC, while practicing sustainable forest management. Probyn Group is also home to TLA President, Bill Markvoort, an asset to the Group and providing value to the BC Forest Industry.

The Probyn Group exports locally sourced Western Red Cedar and other softwoods worldwide. They were recently featured during the London Games with its Export division providing Western Red Cedar to the Velodrome. Probyn shipped 280 cubic meters of material for this project. "It was a privilege to represent the Province by providing Western Red Cedar to the Olympics. The games were a remarkable opportunity for the entire world to view our sustainable products and has been very exciting for our company" - Peter Fograscher, Probyn President, RPF, CA.

For more information, please visit www.probynlog.com. Their websites are in the process of a re-launch; stay tuned for more updates.

Scott Thompson
 

BC Wood will once again be ramping up its' presence at the Interior Design Show West (IDS West) this coming fall, September 19th-22nd, 2013 at the Vancouver Convention Centre. In an effort to bring more attention to the growing strength of wood design and manufacturing in BC, BC Wood has partnered with the show organizers of IDS West to create a high profile "Design BC" pavilion. The pavilion will showcase BC Wood members and their products, everything from custom furniture and architectural millwork, to design-inspired finished products such as kitchen cabinets, doors, flooring, and paneling. The objective will be to feature the individual companies, drawing more traffic to the centrally located space. BC Wood is currently working with the IDS West show organizers to develop promotional strategies that will highlight the companies participating in the "Design BC" pavilion and promote the strength of the growing design sector in BC.

The show attracts 31,000 attendees over 3� days. This includes 4,000 guests to the Opening Night Party, 7,000 designers, architects, buyers, builders/developers, and other industry professionals during trade day, and an additional 24,000 consumers interested in design.

Writers from The Vancouver Sun, Azure Magazine, Homes & Living, Western Living, Design Quarterly, House and Home Media, Georgia Straight, The Westender, Xtra West, the Globe & Mail, National Post, Global Television, City TV's Breakfast Television, and many other outlets, attend and cover the IDS West event.

A total of 1200 square feet of exhibition space has been set aside for the "Design BC" pavilion, with BC Wood covering a portion of the hard costs for this sector wide display. If you plan to participate in the IDS West show this year, please contact me to see how we can save you money and ensure you higher visibility through the "Design BC" pavilion. Call 604-882-7100 or email me at sthompson@bcwood.com  

IDSwest 2012 Recap

BUILDEX Calgary is the largest regional event for the design, build, construction and management of real estate attended by over 4000 industry decision makers including:

• Builders
• Architects/designers
• Contractors/renovators
• Developers
• Building managers/owners

BUILDEX is held each year at the BMO Centre at Stampede Park and features over 225 exhibiting companies and 30+ accredited educational seminars.

I wanted to let you know that as a BC Wood member 2013/14, you are eligible for cost savings at BUILDEX Calgary. BC Wood will also have a 10x10 space within the pavilion.  

Space is quite limited so please contact me as soon as possible for more info:

Scott Thompson

sthompson@bcwood.com or 604-882-7100 (office)

While Japan has long been a large and lucrative market for Canadian wood products, it is also a market in which we always have to be on the lookout for discriminatory trade policies. During the current fiscal year, Japan's Ministry of Agriculture, Forestry, and Fisheries (MAFF) has prepared a budget of approximately $400 million to promote the use of domestic wood in both new home starts as well as renovation work. There have been similar schemes in the past, but in order to maintain WTO compliance, those gave equal status to certified imported wood. This does not seem to be the case with the current proposal so far, but it is possible that some positions may be reversed as overseas pressure is being applied on MAFF to make changes. The program allows for subsidies of Y300,000 per home to the end-users, which means there is enough budget this year for over 100,000 starts under it.

Main Issues with the Current Draft of the Program:

• Over 50% of the structural wood must be domestic
• At present, there is no equivalency for certified wood from overseas. In theory though, the remaining 49% could be imported.
• Any imported wood used must be certified and come from a "growing forest."
• With the pine-beetle infestation, it will be questionable whether SPF will be viewed as coming from a "growing forest."
• 2x4 Housing was not originally included under this program.
• This has now been softened so that 2x4 is also recognized as an eligible system along with post and beam and log homes. However, there is very little domestic Japanese dimension lumber available so it is seen as impossible to clear the 50%+ requirement for domestic wood.

The size and intent of this program is scaring everyone involved with imported lumber in Japan. If successful, this scheme could lead to a significant increase in Japan's wood self-sufficiency. Having said that, even many post and beam companies using domestic wood believe that this system is unworkable in its current format. This is mainly due to the limited capacity of the domestic forest industry, so if MAFF does intend to build 100,000+ homes with this program, they will have to open it up to use imported wood as in the past.

Additionally, Japan is currently negotiating free trade agreements with both the EU and Canada while also taking part in the US led TPP talks. As a result, there is a lot of pressure from lumber supplying nations involved with these various talks and there is even talk of a WTO case being launched. It is quite possible that other Japanese ministries will also exert pressure on MAFF to make this program at the very least WTO compliant.

My personal opinion is that politicians are pushing this massive subsidy through this year as a final bone before Japan agrees to toughen conditions under the TPP that could cripple the domestic forest industry. Basically it is a big payout to keep the industry quite while the government negotiates the TPP. Japan wants free trade with the US for autos and other high-value sectors so something like forestry will likely be thrown under the bus to get it (pun intended). However, even if that is the logic behind this program, Canada must make some noise and fight against it as it has the potential to significantly harm our exports to Japan. BC Wood is in close consultations over this with our Canada Wood partners at COFI and the Canadian Embassy who together are taking the lead on this issue on behalf of the entire forest products industry.