Ontario’s forest industry has a long history as an important economic engine for the province, providing tens of thousands of jobs and billions of dollars to the economy.
Ontario’s forest product markets have historically been categorized into two major sectors - wood products and pulp and paper.
The pulp and paper sector represents about 60% of Ontario’s revenue from forest products. This is followed by the sawmill sector at over 25% and the value-added sector at almost 15%.
The sawmill sector, Ontario’s primary wood industry, consists of solid wood and other products, primarily oriented strandboard (OSB) and medium density fibreboard (MDF). Ontario’s secondary wood industry, or value-added sector, consists of a number of products including furniture, mill work, manufactured housing and engineered wood products. Together these secondary products contribute a significant portion of the revenue generated by Ontario’s wood products sector and are seen as a growing and important component for the future of the industry in the province.
According to the latest Statistics Canada census, Ontario’s forest products sector provides 53,500 direct jobs across the province. In total, the forestry sector supports over 260 Ontario communities.
Ontario Wood helps us grow.
As Ontario’s forest sector continues to embrace emerging bio-economy and green technologies, it must also keep pace with industry changes around the world. Industry, governments, academic institutions and communities are working together to help with this transformation and support a healthy future for forestry in Ontario.
Ontario’s ever-changing forest industry has a promising future. There is a strong outlook for lumber, with sawmills producing the lumber and by-products on which the pulp and paper, value-added wood products and emerging bioenergy segments depend.
There is potential for pulp and paper mills to transform into bio-refineries, acting as chemical refiners creating fuels, other forms of energy, pulp, and chemicals (including petrochemical substitutes). The production of pellets and cogeneration of heat and electrical power is the first phase in the development of bioenergy production.
Emerging technologies are being developed and promoted outside the traditional forestry sector. In Ontario, which has the second most advanced chemical supply chain in North America, there is a potential to move up the value chain into the thriving plastics, material, auto parts, pharmaceutical and energy sectors.
