CONCURRENT SESSION 1
Stream A & B - Speaker Bios
2:00 pm – 5:00 pm
Room Richelieu
Éric Bouchard, CPA, CMA Executive Vice-President, Groupe Rémabec
Presenting: The forest industry has had to evolve quickly and to adapt to an increasingly changing environment: climate change, supply issues, COVID-19, workforce challenges, operational costs, transport, Canada-U.S. relations, just to name a few.
In order to be and to remain competitive and to be less subject to these issues, Rémabec developed a unique business model: a network of entrepreneurs specialized in planning, logging, transport, transformation and commercialisation as well as in sawmill operations. Rémabec is a financial partner and associate as well as a service provider to these entrepreneurs allowing them to be focused on their core activity.
In recent years, Rémabec and its partners have been investing to find innovative solutions to make better use of forest residues. The Port-Cartier Integrated Plant is a great example of how forestry can continue to play a key role in response to climate change. By moving further and not limiting itself to first transformation, Rémabec now uses wood residues to create biofuel. Furthermore, in early 2025, wood residues will also be transformed into biochar, mainly used as soil amendment, and biocarbon as a replacement of fossil fuels.
Bios
For the past 24 years, Mr. Bouchard has been evolving at the heart of Groupe Rémabec, a leader in Quebec’s Forest Industry.
Starting off as Vice-President, Finance and Corporative Development, Mr. Bouchard also held the Manufacturing and Forestry Operations position, giving him a full circle view of the business. Building both on his knowledge of the industry and his vast experience within the company, he became Executive Vice-President of Groupe Rémabec in 2016. Business savvy, he is a high achiever and strives at problem solving.
A project he holds dear was pursuing the development of a unique business model for the Groupe Rémabec, which reunites entrepreneurs specialized in planning, logging, transport, transformation and commercialisation as well as in sawmill operations, giving Rémabec a competitive edge. And more recently, Mr. Bouchard has been playing a key role in the development of clean energy, always seeking for new opportunities to ensure the company’s growth.
Proud father and husband, Éric Bouchard holds a Bachelor’s degree in Business Administration from HEC Montréal, making him a Chartered professional accountant (CPA, CMA). After graduating, Mr. Bouchard worked for Cartons St-Laurent both in their La Tuque and United States’ plant.
Mr. Bouchard sits on the Conseil de l’industrie forestière du Québec’s Executive Committee as well as on the Board of Gestion Rémabec inc., Arbec, Bois d’œuvre inc., and BioEnergie AECN Canada inc. Email: eric.bouchard@remabec.com
Mathieu LeBlanc, Founder/CEO, ACFOR Inc.
Presenting: ACFOR saw a need for more climate resilient restorative forestry in the maritimes and because of lack of pulp markets, they created an wood heat energy company to replace fossil fuel heated facilities with modern wood heat.
Bios
In 2006, while working for a forestry consulting firm in the Ottawa region, Mathieu decided to move back to his home province to start his own forestry management company ‘’ACFOR’’ in the midst of the worst forestry crisis in history.
Mathieu describes himself as a social entrepreneur, to further environmental and
social goals. ACFOR ‘’Acronym for Acadian Forest’’ restores and increases the quality of
the Acadian Forest through sustainable forestry management.
Struggling to find markets for low grade wood. Mathieu founded ACFOR Energy which delivers renewable heat to commercial buildings and rural communities with wood
biomass, using the most advanced biomass boilers in the world.
ACFOR’s success has been recognized many times with awards. Mathieu was recently
named in the top 20 under 40 by The Canadian Forest Industries.
Email: mathieu@acforinc.com
Matthew Mattioda, Chief Forester, Miller Timber
Presenting: Miller Timber Services is not your average forestry services provider. With operations from coast to coast in the United States, Miller provides services from seedling to stump including wildfire protection services. This presentation will cover who Miller is, how we came to be and how do you manage across a wide geographic area in 4 time zones. What are the challenges and how do you overcome them.
Bios
Matt graduated from Oregon State University in 1995 with a BS in Forest Management and a minor in Business. He has been a company forester for Willamette Industries, and was a commodity buyer for Jeld Wen. Matt has been at Miller for the past 14+ years and helps oversee the largest one owner CTL fleet in North America. Matt and his wife Sabrina have 3 kids and they make their home in Albany Oregon. Email: Matt@millertimber.com
Percy Guichon, Executive Director, Central Chilcotin Rehabilitation Ltd. (CCR)/ Tŝideldel First Nation
Presenting: A small First Nation is taking the lead in forestry in the Cariboo Chilcotin region of British Columbia. Tŝideldel First Nation is located 2 hours west of Williams Lake. It is a small First Nation taking on large scale forestry projects to bring social, environmental, and economic wins to the Nation and surrounding communities. From Mountain Pine beetle infestations to mega wildfires burning thousands of hectares of forest, the challenges have been significant to rehabilitate the land, but each project proves the innovation, ingenuity, and resilience of the Tŝideldel people to make change by taking the lead on decision making on their territory. From a logging company to biomass operations to a community forest and building log cabins, learn how Tŝideldel is creating partnerships with all levels of government, neighbouring First Nations, and industry to use traditional methods and modern technologies to punch above their weight in the forestry sector in British Columbia.
Bios
Percy Guichon is the Executive Director of Central Chilcotin Rehabilitation Ltd. (CCR), a joint venture forest rehabilitation company, and elected Councillor of Tŝideldel First Nation. Percy has played a pivotal role in CCR’s growth and success. Reflecting on the journey, Percy acknowledges the challenges faced and attributes the company’s achievements to perseverance, hard work, and the unwavering support of the community. His commitment to making a positive impact on the land and people is evident in CCR’s recognized leadership in the forestry industry. Email: percy@tsideldel.org
Jerry Mooney, Woodlands Manager Joint Ventures, Tolko Industries Ltd.
Presenting: Tolko is a member of the BC Trucking and Harvesting Advisory Group (THAG) formed in 2013. This group has been working on various safety issues and is an advocate for improving the trucking industry. This presentation will outline some of the various initiatives the THAG has been working on such as Incident Data, the Anatomy of a Roll Over, Fatigue Management, Driver Training, Safety Videos and Load Securement. Specific to Tolko operations, Mr. Mooney will expand on internal initiatives including an innovation project involving the install and testing of the Exte Com 90 automated load securement system, assessment of an EV-Hybrid truck, use of in Cab Telematics, and discussion on various truck configurations and payloads.
Bios
1988-1993 Graduate of the University of NB with a Bachelor of Science in Forestry.
1993-2002 Employed with the BC Ministry of Forests working in various silviculture roles
2002-current Employed with Tolko Industries Ltd. primarily working in Forest Harvesting and Trucking operations as a supervisor and Woodlands Manager. During the past 5 years Jerry has been working as the General Manager of Timber Service. A 50% Tolko owned Logging and Trucking joint venture.
Jerry also sits as a Board member on three Tolko-First Nations Joint Venture partnerships including Tsi Del Del Enterprises (BC), Ecolink Ltd (BC), and Kitaskinaw Enterprises (Saskatchewan). Email: jerry.mooney@tolko.com
Ballroom AB
Evelyne Thiffault , Professor in Forest Ecology and Management, Department of Wood and Forest Sciences - Université Laval
Presenting: We have estimated that for Quebec, an ambitious portfolio of actions mobilizing the forest lands of the province and the wood processing industries could generate annual greenhouse gas emission reductions varying from 0.5 to 6.7 Mt CO2 eq/year by 2030. Implementing these actions requires detailed knowledge of the territory and dynamics of forest ecosystems and the links between forests and societal needs for materials and energy, all the more in the context of a changing climate that affects forest composition and natural disturbance regimes.
Bios
Evelyne Thiffault is a forest engineer and full professor in forest ecology and management at the department of wood and forest sciences at Laval University in Quebec City since 2014. She is the scientific director of Forêt Montmorency, the largest university research forest in the world and dedicated to the advancement of science on the boreal biome. Her work focuses on the role of forest management and wood products for the transition of the global energy system and climate change mitigation. Email: evelyne.thiffault@sbf.ulaval.ca
Alexis Achim, Professeur titulaire, Université Laval
Presenting: Canadian forests are increasingly threatened by natural disturbances such as wildfires, insect epidemics, and climate-related events, leading to significant uncertainty in forest management. In response, the NSERC Alliance Silva21 project, a collaboration between industry, government, and academia, developed a continuous forest inventory framework to help adapt silviculture to these new realities. This innovative framework integrates airborne laser scanning with satellite imagery to detect changes in forest stands and monitor growth. Applied in various Canadian regions, it has successfully identified stand-replacing and non-stand-replacing disturbances, enabling more informed management decisions. The near real-time information provided to silviculturists is providing key information that will facilitate decision-making.
Bios
Alexis Achim is a full professor and vice-dean of research at the Faculty of Forestry, Geography and Geomatics. He is the principal investigator of Silva21 an NSERC Alliance project aiming to provide data, tools and practical solutions to improve the resilience of Canadian forests to various disturbances and sources of stress, thereby contributing to the health of these ecosystems and the well-being of the communities that depend on them. Email: alexis.achim@sbf.ulaval.ca
Loïc D’Orangeville, Professor, Université Laval
Presenting: Managing forests for climate change hinges on good knowledge of the direct and indirect effects of climate on tree recruitment, growth and mortality. Here, I will revisit some recent findings from eastern Canada on tree susceptibility to heat and drought stress, differences between species and populations and the role of competition and thinning.
Bios
Loïc D’Orangeville recently accepted a faculty position at the Department of Wood and Forest Sciences at Laval University, after spending six years at the University of New Brunswick. He holds a PhD in Renewable Resource Sciences from McGill University, and completed postdoctoral internships at Indiana University (USA), Université du Québec à Montréal and was a visiting scholar at Harvard Forest. His research program leverages different approaches to tackle the vast question of forest response to climate change. Large-scale field experiments, high-precision monitoring of tree ecophysiology and analyses of tree growth databases are all used to assess climatic thresholds in the growth and health of temperate and boreal tree species from eastern Canada. Email: loic.dorangeville@unb.ca
Kate Lindsay, Senior Vice President and Chief Sustainability Officer, Forest Products Association of Canada
Presenting: Brief overview of innovative practices across Canada with a goal of increasing the resilience of forested ecosystems. How do we scale-up forestry solutions in a changing climate, and support Canada’s transition to a lower carbon economy?
Bios
Kate is responsible for working with FPAC members to advance the industry’s position on key legislative files and environmental leadership, including; climate action, sustainability, adaptation and resiliency, species at risk and biodiversity conservation. Kate has been with FPAC for over 10 years, prior to this role, she was VP, Sustainability and Environmental Partnerships and Director of Conservation Biology. Kate has been selected to participate in formal advisory roles to the federal government, including the Nature Advisory Committee and the National Adaptation Strategy, Economy and Workers Table. Kate has also recently joined the FireSmart Canada Advisory Committee and the Board of the NSERC Wildfire Research Network. Kate is from British Columbia and prior to working at FPAC, Kate held roles with government, the forest industry and with an environmental consulting firm. Kate graduated with a BSc from the University of Victoria, and is a Registered Professional Biologist (R.P.Bio).
Email: klindsay@fpac.ca
Lauri Sikanen, Principal Scientist / Group Manager, Natural Resources Institute Finland - LUKE
Presenting: Forest management and timber harvesting practices in Finland are presented and reflected with the situation in Canada. Changing weather and “social climate” are pressurising forestry at the same time with increasing demand of renewable raw materials and products. Already recognized and potential collaboration opportunities will be shared and discussed.
Bios
Dr. Sikanen has been working over 30 years with industrial timber supply R&D. 1999 he had his PhD of customized wood purchases and supply at the University of Joensuu, Finland. Since 2001 he has been focusing on wood biomass for energy and international technology and know-how transfer. In Luke and former Finnish Forest Research Institute (Metla) he has been leading and participating R&D and consulting projects in Finland, Scotland, Germany, Italy, Russia, Iceland, Portugal and Canada. Sikanen worked also as a professor of energy pellet research at the University of Eastern Finland 2008-2013. He is also an external adjunct professor of Lakehead University (ON) where he was working as a visiting scholar the autumn semester 2017. Sikanen is a chairman of the Forest Bioeconomy Strategy Group of North-Karelia. 2017 Canadian Embassy to Finland awarded Dr. Sikanen by the “”Certificat d´honneur et mérite”” for his work in strenghtening Canada-Finland relationships in forest bioeconomy and science. Currently Sikanen runs the group of 25 forest technology and wood material science experts in Luke and acts as a “Country Manager of Canada”.
Email: lauri.sikanen@luke.fi
Continue to Concurrent Session 2
Speaker Bios
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