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A peek at this year’s COFI Convention

Jan. 30, 2018 – The BC Council of Forest Industries (COFI) is in full swing preparing for its annual convention taking place this year from April 4-6 at the Prince George Civic Centre in Prince George, B.C.

“The COFI Convention is the largest forestry event in Western Canada so it’s a place where we all get the opportunity to gather together, network and share ideas. Delegates will also hear from speakers and presenters on current issues and opportunities facing the industry,” said Susan Yurkovich, president and CEO of COFI.

Taking into account all that has occurred in the past year, Yurkovich said the conference will cover topics including softwood lumber and the Canada-U.S. relationship, the future of fibre supply, wildfire impacts, the impacts of beetle-wood and a look at the markets including U.S. and Asia – the latter of which is being pushed into more in light of recent events with Canada’s neighbour to the south.

“We’re into the appeals process now which is a different phase of the softwood lumber dispute. We have final duties in place and we will be paying them for some time as we go through administrative reviews,” said Yurkovich. “Trade is a very active subject with the current administration in the U.S. and of course, our country is engaged in discussions around NAFTA. We plan to have a speaker who can shed some light on current discussions around Canada and U.S. trade.”

For those interested in what the future of work in the forest industry will look like, there will also be a focus on forestry jobs of the future and why the innovation supercluster initiative matters to forestry.

Last year’s convention brought out more than 600 people and Yurkovich says attendance is looking high again.

“Our booth space is almost sold out, so we’ve had huge interest again this year following our successful convention in Vancouver last year.”

For more information, visit https://www.cofi.org/convention/2018-convention/.

January 30, 2018  By  Tamar Atik

Susan Yurkovich is president and CEO of the BC Council of Forest Industries.