local development industry for not embrac-
ing mass timber more enthusiastically.
"The development industry is so set in its
ways about concrete," he says. "The building
community is still resistant to changes."
But, like Brewster, he also faults
slow-moving, locked-in-their-ways govern-
ments for not doing more.
"Vancouver is very good at stifling good
architecture," he adds ruefully.
The province is insisting everything is
full steam ahead and things are going well.
It has a mass-timber action plan, released
in July 2024. It supported a conference in
September called Woodrise that brought
together people experimenting with wood
construction techniques as part of B.C.'s
effort to position itself as a global leader in
the sector.
A ministry spokesperson says about 450
mass-timber buildings have been completed
or are under construction, noting that is 20
times more per capita than the rest of North
America. It's about half of the 800 mass-tim-
ber buildings that the federal government
says exist nationally.
And, while B.C. hasn't gone as far as
France, which mandates that 50 percent of
any new public building has to be built with
mass timber or other natural materials, this
province requires any public building to use
mass timber "whenever feasible," a policy
that has resulted in 41 successful projects.
One thing no one has worked out yet,
though, is the supply.
What? you say. But B.C. is filled with
wood. Surely supply is the last thing this
province needs to worry about.
As it turns out, there is only one mass-tim-
ber producer in B.C.—the Kalesnikoff Lumber
Co. facility in Castlegar. Another company
that had been operating a factory in Pent-
icton, Structurlam, filed for bankruptcy in
April 2023.
While Michael Green says Kalesnikoff is
making the "best product in the world right
now," it's not enough. Many builders are
getting their mass timber from elsewhere.
It's something that you'd think the prov-
ince might put some muscle into changing,
especially given the dire state of the forestry
industry as a result of U.S. tariffs.
So far, no word on that.
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