Quebec’s Provincial Government Announces Aggressive Wood Harvesting Plan within 60 years

Quebec’s Premier, Francois Legault’s government has announced that it intends to almost double the amount of wood harvested each year in Quebec forest within 60 years. Minister of Forest, Wildlife and Parks, Pierre Dufour, presented the National Wood Production Strategy on Wednesday (12/16). Pointing to the conclusion of the latest report from Quebec’s chief forester, DuFour noted that Quebec’s forests are under-exploited and the pressure on them has never been so low for nearly 30 years. Dufour went onto say that “In the short term, Quebec must however deal with the deterioration in the quantity and quality of wood available in its forests, a trend that has been accentuated in recent decades. To prevent this issue, the government will increase, among other things, by $ 300 million over five years, the amount invested to carry out silviculture work, which will amount to $ 1.43 billion. Minister Dufour also announced that a “Policy for integrating wood into construction” would eventually be presented in order to use all the additional volumes that will thus be made available. However, no target has yet been set.