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Background:

• The entry of "Western Canadian SPF" into India was approved in January 2011 when the 2 Western spruce species were officially approved for entry, (Pines and True firs had already been approved)
• At that time in 2011, the 2 Eastern Spruce species of Red and Black Spruce were NOT allowed for entry
• Since 2011, the CFIA and CFS have been engaged providing pest risk assessment information for the India Ministry of Agriculture which have finally been approved.

Resolution for Eastern Spruce Species Entry and Eastern SPF- Effective Immediately:

• Eastern Canadian SPF can now also enter India - as long as it is Heat Treated (HT) to CHTWPCP standards.
• The Eastern Canadian Spruce species of Picea mariana (Black spruce) and Picea rubens (Red spruce) have now been approved as shown in the official publication (Pines and True firs previously approved)
• Shippers of Eastern SPF will require 3 separate import permits for the collective mix species of Spruce, Pine and Fir which must be made available to CFIA at time of the Phytosanitary Inspection request. 
• Please note - Import permits are to be obtained by the customer or agent in India from their local Ministry of Agriculture Office and the correct Latin names for the Eastern SPF species in your area must be utilized as noted here:
  • For the Spruce species - utilize the correct species of Picea mariana, Picea rubens, or when applicable Picea glauca;
  • For the Pine species - utilize Pinus banksiana
  • For the Fir species - utilize Abies balsamea
• Please note - Import permits will also need the volumes associated with each of the different species in that Spruce-Pine-Fir species mix.  It is best to obtain the % breakdown for each of the species from the forest harvesting company or the Ministry of Forests in that Province, and, apply that % to the SPF volume in that shipment for each of the import permits by their species.
• Please note - fumigation with Methyl bromide is mentioned as an acceptable phytosanitary treatment in the India regulation, however, this procedure is not accepted as a phytosanitary alternative for operational treatment within Canada by CFIA.  (There are some exceptions - check with CFIA for guidance). 
  • o   Also note that India's Methyl bromide fumigation standard is to a temperature of 21 C for a minimum of 24 hours utilizing 48 grams/m3 of M Br.
• Please note - the India authorities state that the lumber/timber requirement must be "wood without bark"which may be interpreted as being "bark free" or possibly being "equivalent to" the tolerance utilized in ISPM 15 bark tolerance standards. (Check with CFIA for guidance)

A special thank you to all those involved in securing the approvals for the entry of our Canadian species into India!

This will be posted on the Canada Wood Phytosanitary Guidelines Website on Monday July 15th. 

Please Note - the Canada Wood Phytosanitary Guidelines Website is also available in a French Translation at time of log in.  The individual country phyto guidelines have been left in English to avoid issues with interpretations.

If you have any questions, do not hesitate to contact me,

Brian Zak

Market Access and Phytosanitary Specialist

Canada Wood

Office 250 426 4862

Cell 604 720 6379

This event is the annual meeting of the International Research Council for Research and Innovation in Building and Construction's Working Commission W18 on Timber Structures. This important annual meeting brings together internationally-known expert researchers from the field of timber building, and is a forum where new developments in technologies, products and construction techniques are often first introduced, later finding their way into building codes around the world. The conference has been held in various international locations and was last in Vancouver in 1997.  

This year's event is organised by UBC's Timber Engineering and Applied Mechanics group and the Centre for Advanced Wood Processing, and will provide an opportunity for practitioners to participate in a 4-day event in which the latest scientific research on timber construction will be presented and discussed. Presentations will take place in the convenient location of UBC's downtown campus at Robson Square. The conference includes an opening reception, a conference dinner, an evening dinner cruise, and a day of technical tours visiting prominent buildings in the Lower Mainland.  The expected attendance is approximately 80 people. A list of accepted presentations is available on the CIB W18 website.  

REGISTRATION INFORMATION can be found at http://www.rz.uni-karlsruhe.de/%7Egc20/IHB/cib_information.pdf

This event is sponsored in part by Forestry Innovation Investment.

This one day workshop will provide you with the tools you need to establish gains in Productivity, Quality, Cost, Safety, and Morale.

A positive approach to continuous improvement in your business will result in significant gains! Click here to hear how it worked for Mitsui Homes Canada Ltd. http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=5d268LAFGlM

This workshop will provide you with methods to conduct Continuous Improvement activities. Through a "Learn by Doing" approach, participants will conduct a practice exercise in tracking internal quality, setting measurements, establishing standards and leadership.

Date/Time: September 17, 7:30am-4:00pm

Location: Morgan Creek Golf Course, 3500 Morgan Creek Way, Surrey 

To register, Click here 

For more information, click here  

I often walk trade shows, and unfortunately, I just as often see the same uninviting situations described above.  I ask myself what their management would say and do about it. They invested a lot of money into their trade shows, but good opportunities for meeting new prospects are lost or barely taken.

If you look more closely at well-trained booth staff teams, you'll see what the biggest difference is between a moderately rewarding trade show and a really successful one: How motivated are their booth staffers?

While good advice can be expensive, there are exceptions to the rules.  So here are a few free approaches to properly prepare your booth staff for your next show:

Collecting unqualified leads is out. Do you know what happens to most leads and business cards after a show?  That's right:  Too many leads are quickly thrown in the trash.  Moreover, you are doing it the easy way, if you simply only collect 200 leads at the trade show.

Roy Manion

The summer continues to be quite brisk for the Specifiers Program. During the first two weeks of July, we held two Lunch and Learn sessions, one at Henriquez Partners Architects and the other at KMBR Architects. Both were focus sessions and both were initiated by program participants. Also, this was the third time we had been to each of these firms providing information on a variety of topics, which we are doing with many firms throughout the architect community.

We concluded the seminars and factory tours on Hybrid Wood Curtain Wall Window Systems, a topic that received overwhelming interest from the architect community.

Architect Institute of America (AIA):

Last week, we received notice from the Architect Institute of America that BC Wood has been accepted as a Registered Provider. However, much has to be done before we can present our first session. Beginning in March of this year, AIA instituted a program whereby all new AIA Registered Providers have to go through a process regarding the various aspects of being an AIA Registered Provider. This includes our having to go through 8 hours of "Prerequisite Training education" that we need to complete within a set period of time. We expect this all to be done within the next couple of weeks.

Alberta Association of Architects (AAA):

We have also sent in our application to this association and they have acknowledged our application and are currently reviewing it. We also expect this to be completed within the next couple of weeks.

GBM:

I am sure that you will see several articles regarding the GBM in this and future editions of Wood Connections. As mentioned in our last article, Scott Thompson in our office is taking on the lion's share of the Architect Program at the GBM (you will find details under the heading of "Wood First").

The only thing I want to mention is that architect registration is considerably ahead of where we were this time last year. Also, for a significant number of architects who have registered, this will be their first GBM. Both of these developments bode well for the Wood First Architect Program at the event.

Skwachays Lodge in Vancouver  

In the last Wood Connections, we presented the opportunity for companies in our industry to connect with six of Vancouver's top commercial interior designer firms and at the same time support a great cause. I have been requested to repeat the article so here goes:

If you are interested in assisting First Nations in a very worthwhile endeavour and at the same time develop a relationship with six of Vancouver's leading Interior Designers then read on.

There is a renovation that is taking place at Skwatchays Lodge in Vancouver. The plan is to re-position the lodge as Canada's only Aboriginal arts hotel. Once completed, guests can immerse themselves in First Nations culture by staying in the arts hotel, having breakfast in a fine art gallery, and perhaps participate in a workshop with the artist who created the room. To accomplish this, six aboriginal artists are teaming up with six of Vancouver's leading Interior Designer firms with each team tasked with designing and furnishing 3 rooms. For their part, the Interior Designers are donating their services and are now soliciting donations from BC's furniture, millwork, and cabinet industry in the form of a piece of furniture, a cabinet or a vanity as part of the renovation. They are not seeking large volumes from a single manufacturer, but rather have multiple manufacturers become involved with a donation of just a single piece. All those who donate will then have the opportunity of meeting and working with the various designer firms.

The first of these opportunities will be on August 8th when Skwatchays Lodge will be hosting a meet and greet event. All Interior Designer firms along with the aboriginal artists will be attending. This will be a thank you party for all those that have donated time, money or goods, and also a way to introduce them to most of the Interior Design firms that do hospitality design in Vancouver.

If you wish to become involved in this project or require additional information, please contact Vicki Pearson of Porada Design Group at Vicki@poradadesign.com or myself at rmanion@bcwood.com

As always, should you want more information on any aspects of the Specifiers Program please let me know by contacting me at rmanion@bcwood.com .

How to get attention from a couple of hundred international wood products buyers?

Join us onboard the MV Harbour Princess for the International Buyers Networking Dinner and Harbour Cruise September 4th!

Later this year, BC Wood will be participating with Industry members in the Denver Log and Timber Home show, September 27th to 29th. The feedback from the members attending last years' Denver show was generally very positive. The number of attendees, while not back to pre-2008 levels, was definitely higher than they had been in recent years. Most exhibitors reported a more positive attitude from the attendees at the show. Individuals who had been hesitant over the past few years to take the final step towards building their projects came to the show ready to build.

The Denver show featured log home and timber frame displays, smaller out-buildings and finished building products such as roofing, flooring, decking and rustic furniture. Over the past few years, a number of BC Wood members from the log and timber frame home sector have used the Denver show to maintain a toe hold in the US market while they cut back on some of their other promotional activities during the slower economic times.

The BC log and timber frame builders have remained active in a number of regional markets in the US like the Rocky Mountain States, because it has been one of the few areas that has shown some activity. The Rocky Mountain States, due to their close geographic proximity to BC, product acceptance, and the clustering of resort developments catering to a wealthy demographic, have continued to be a relatively strong market for BC producers.

We are talking to members now about their space requirements at the Denver show. If you are interested on more information about the show including costs, please contact me at bhawrysh@bcwood.com or in BC Wood's offices at 604-882-7100.

It is hard to imagine that a country that is so famous for its go-go days in the 1980s when the Canadian Embassy in Tokyo was supposedly worth more than all of Western Canada, could turn into a population that expected only price decreases, but that is exactly what happened to Japan after the bubble burst. The primary goal of "Abenomics" is to once and for all break this mindset and that is what seems to be happening. Finally!

This has particularly been a problem for the housing industry. With recovering U.S. housing starts suddenly creating stronger demand for lumber just as the Yen began to weaken, Japanese clients faced a 1-2 punch of increasing import prices. This situation has been complicated by the fact that the housing market is the strongest it has been in at least five years, yet end-users were not accepting increases in prices. However, as consumers are now seeing rising prices for everything from toilet paper to cheesecakes, the taboo of increasing prices to home buyers seems to have been broken. Large domestic building product manufacturers are pushing the price increase on to builders and the strong demand for housing is allowing the builders to pass increases on to their customers.

According to a recent article in the Nikkei Newspaper, this change in mindset is also affecting overall consumption patterns. In the post-war period, consumers were driven by a need to keep up with their neighbours, but this switched to consuming as a way to show-off during the bubble economy. Once the bubble burst, this was replaced by a desire to buy the cheapest products possible. This changed around 2000 to "cost-performance" based purchases that emphasized the best quality possible for the lowest price possible which is what led to Uniqlo's meteoric rise. And now? A recent study has shown that people have returned to buying luxury items, but as a way to improve the quality of their lives and not to show-off as was the case in the 80's. This return to quality is being seen and in various retail spaces with products that offer unique functions taking centre stage, rather than the cheapest sale items.

Talking to builders, this change in mindset is also starting to affect home buyers. Better insulation and higher earthquake resistance are common demands after 3/11, but better and more comfortable interiors are also becoming more important to consumers. Even amidst the current rush to build spec housing, you can see houses going up with more distinctive exteriors around Tokyo. Hopefully, this changing mindset will continue to drive the housing markets, even as demand begins to level off. Better quality homes in Japan will mean even more opportunities for Canadian wood products.