History/Intro

Ontario’s Forest Products Industry: 200 Years in the Making

The Boreal Forest

Ontario forests cover 800,000 square kilometers, making up 17% of Canada’s forests and 1% of the world’s forest resource.

The province has four distinct forest regions, including the boreal forest in the north and, at its uppermost reaches, the boreal-barrens, and further south, the deciduous and Great Lakes–St. Lawrence forest regions.

Of these, the boreal forest is by far the largest, blanketing 550,000 square kilometers (close to 50% of the province)


and accounting for 76% of Ontario woodlands. Twenty thousand years ago, this land lay frozen beneath the retreating glacier that marked the end of the last Ice Age—and it took an additional 15,000 years to become the forest we know today. Since then, it has helped shape Ontario’s landscape, culture and economy. Characterized by coniferous trees (which have needles) such as spruce and jack pine, and deciduous trees (which have leaves) such as poplar and birch, the boreal forest is the primary source of fibre for the forest products industry.

But that wasn’t always the case.


The Early Settlers

If any single event can be said to have launched Ontario as a major exporter of forest products, it was a battle that took place in 1806 far from Canadian shores. Napoleon—who’d been at war with Britain for a year—secured the English Channel, blocking the British Royal Navy from Scandinaviaand its traditional source of timber. Needing wood to reinforce its fleet, Britain turned to the Ottawa River Valley, an area rich in mature white pine.

The pine traveled east via Quebec, Napoleon withdrew and later met defeat at Waterloo, and timber soon replaced fur as Ontario’s major export. Sawmills sprang up throughout the Ottawa Valley—some of which were family-owned and still exist today—but equally common was the practice of exporting whole logs.White pine, in particular, which is strong enough for masts and suited to almost any building purpose, was also valuable enough to transport great distances and still be profitable.

Unlike today, no one viewed the clearing of forested land as a concern. To the contrary, the removal of trees was seen as a way to attract settlers, as forests were converted to farmland.


The First Paper Mill

Twenty years later, the young William Lyon Mackenzie—a man destined (among many other things) to become the first mayor of Toronto—set in motion a chain of events that would forever change the industry.

As publisher of the Colonial Advocate, Mackenzie didn't like having to import his paper from the United States, which was the nearest available source. He viewed it as a missed opportunity to strengthen the domestic economy and suggested that the government of Upper Canada provide an incentive to would-be investors. The government agreed and offered £125 to the person who built Ontario's first working paper mill. The bounty was paid in 1826—to James Crooks, who erected a mill near his other "manufactories" in the Township of West Flamborough, a few kilometres west of Dundas.

Over the next fifty years, pulp and paper mills were built across southern Ontario as North America became home to a large reading public and the demand for paper rose. Wood fibres replaced rags as the preferred raw material—and, while the forests of the south were slowly being replaced with cities, towns and farms, there was a seemingly endless supply in the north.

In 1898, in an effort to generate more wealth here at home, the province outlawed the export

of whole logs taken from Crown lands. This prompted some companies to build sawmills in northern Ontario—primarily in the districts of Sudbury, Georgian Bay, Rainy River and Kenora-Keewatin. Although these mills soon had their share of expanding markets, the industry in British Columbia was going through a period of major growth, and quickly passed Ontario as Canada’s leading lumber manufacturer.

Proponents of the "New Ontario" saw the production of pulp and paper as a way to offset this development and boost the northern economy. Spruce and other softwoods, abundant in the boreal forest, were ideal for making high quality pulp. For the industry, there were also benefits to mills built close to their sources of fibre and power—and the government added other incentives, such as long-term leases for timber and restrictions on the export of pulpwood.

The industry continued in much the same vein until after World War II, when advances in technology meant that loggers had greater access to the bush and more efficient tools for harvesting. With a growing network of highways in the north, logs once sent along waterways—season permitting—were now trucked to mills year round.

In the face of a burgeoning world population, the Ontario forest industry was helping to meet the growing demand for wood and paper products—and, in so doing, creating wealth for employees, local communities and the province as a whole. However, for the first time, there was concern about the future of Ontario’s forest resource.

Sustainable Development

During the 1970s and 1980s, conflict among stakeholders was common. But in 1987, former Norwegian Prime Minister Gro Harlem Brundtland came up with a solution. Speaking as Chair of the World Commission on Environment and Development, Dr. Brundtland popularized the concept of “sustainable development” as a way to balance environmental protection with the social and economic needs of humans, now and in the future. Defined as “development that meets the needs of the present without compromising the ability of future generations to meet their own needs,” the idea captured the interest and imagination of governments, organizations and individuals worldwide.

In the years that followed, Canada became one of the first countries to apply the theory of sustainable development to the realities of forest management. The result was a shift in forest policy and practices that saw the traditional focus on timber expand to include the management and sustainability of entire forest ecosystems.

Today, sustainability is the framework upon which all forestry activities take place. In addition to a wide range of federal and provincial regulations, independent audits are a requirement of both the Crown Forest Sustainability Act and the terms and conditions set out by the Timber Management Environmental Assessment Board. Members of OFIA also adhere to their own Environmental Policy and Code of Forest Practices , and many have achieved or are seeking sustainable forestry certification from bodies such as the Forest Stewardship Council and the Canadian Standards Association.

Through Ontario’s Living Legacy and the Ontario Forest Accord, cooperation among stakeholders has become the new working reality. The provincial government, industry and the environmental community all share a commitment to the health of Ontario forests, and are working together to complete Ontario’s network of parks and protected areas, while at the same time providing industry with greater certainty, recognizing the needs of resource-based tourism, and enhancing recreational opportunities on Crown land.

The Forest Industry Today

Today, members of the OFIA operate sawmills, pulp and paper mills, veneer mills and panelboard mills in more than 35 locations in the province. The Ontario industry exported $8.9 billion worth of products in 1999, and contributed $3.7 billion to the provincial balance of trade—second only to the automotive industry. Today’s forest products sector directly or indirectly employs almost 230,000 Ontarians, and supports more than 40 forestry-dependent communities.