Bill Mauro MPP – Ontario’s Wood First Act provides us with an opportunity

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Bill Mauro MPPQUEEN’S PARK – MPP Bill Mauro, Thunder Bay-Atikokan, will be tabling ‘Ontario’s Wood First Act’ in the Ontario Legislature. The Private Member’s Bill would promote the use of wood as the primary building material in publically-funded buildings. The legislation would also require that Ontario’s Building Code increase the maximum height of wood framed buildings from 4-storey to 6-storey.

Mauro states, “Ontario’s Wood First Act provides us with an opportunity to increase demand for Ontario forest products—and that would bring more jobs back to Northern Ontario. Our province has a huge construction industry. We can significantly increase the use of wood without pushing out the other players. BC has already shown that this type of policy can work. I’m confident that we can make it work in Ontario.”

Logs“In recent years, Canada’s forestry sector was hit by the new soft wood lumber agreement, the rising Canadian dollar, the collapse of the US housing market, the global recession, and a dramatic decline in the North American demand for newsprint. Without export demand, Canada’s forestry sector experienced a serious downturn,” added Mauro.

“By generating demand for forestry products within Ontario, this bill could bring jobs back to Northern Ontario’s forestry sector”.

Ontario’s Wood First Act has a precedent: British Columbia passed legislation in 2009 promoting the use of wood as the primary building material in publically-funded buildings. British Columbia has also amended their building code to allow wood framed buildings up to six storeys.

Ontario’s Wood First Act will be debated in the Ontario Legislature on April 19th.

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