Cost of certifying can be shared.

Smaller forestry companies in Northern Ontario need not fear mandatory certification, says an official with one of the largest forest companies in Canada. If anything, mandatory certification should provide a chance for companies to become creative.

"Don't get me wrong," says Jim Lopez, executive vice-president, and president of the forest products group for Montreal-based Tembec. "I'm sympathetic. I'm just saying certification may not be the bogeyman many of them fear."

The Ontario government now requires that all holders of sustainable forest licences on Crown land must receive certification by one of the three main certifying bodies by 2007, although MNR officials concede that they are willing to be flexible with individual companies that show effort to meet certification.

Lopez says that he understands that certification may be a problem for companies that cannot afford to maintain separate staff to maintain certification programs and continue the independent auditing process. He says, however, that such cost need not be borne alone.

Smaller sustainable forestry (SFL) license holders can take a page from organizations like the Timiskaming Forest Alliance, a co-operative of forest companies of varying sizes under one SFL in the Timiskaming forest management unit.

Small- and medium-sized operations can "piggy back" off of companies like Tembec, Domtar and Abitibi and spread the unit cost so that bigger companies that can afford to pay more are paying more, he says.

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If member companies pay according to volume extracted, bigger companies like Tembec will pay more, compared to smaller operators, like Grant Forest Products and Cheminis Lumber.

Tembec is one of the leaders in certification, having committed itself to the rigorous Forest Stewardship Council (FSC) standards voluntarily. Lopez says it costs Tembec about one dollar for every cubic metre harvested from the market to remain certified with FSC. The company harvests close to four million cubic metres annually. Paper work is not the only cost, he says. Standards maintained by FSC require costs not associated with forestry. Under the FSC, he says, Tembec must also maintain standards of community investment and ongoing consultations with Aboriginal communities.

"It's a lot of money," he says.

The cost, however, must be sustained by the forest business community, he contends. Even if companies are meeting or exceeding standards set out by these bodies by obeying existing forest sustainable legislation, this reality is not reaching the public.

"The reality is that the public doesn't trust us to do this or even the government. They remember the Nortel and the Enron scandals," he says.

Certification is an important way for the industry to bypass public cynicism. Being certified, he says, saves a company having to invest in all sorts of studies or assurances that they are sustainable. Having the SFC designation, Lopez says, speaks for itself in terms of the environmental and conservation communities, as well as a more environmentally conscious consumer market.

Environmental groups, he says, will not go away and forest companies must continue to harvest from the forest. Rightly or wrongly, the public will not accept the status quo. Most of Tembec's operations occur in Canada's boreal forest, and environmentalist groups seem to have set their sites on this region for more campaigning.

"They're running out of issues," Lopez says. "They concentrated much of their efforts on the British Columbia forests, now they are looking to the boreal forests."

Lopez says that Tembec's decision to opt for the tougher FSC standards, rather than the less-stringent codes such as the Sustainable Forests Initiative (SFI) and the Canadian Standards Association (CSA), was partly driven by the strength of environmental groups like the World Wildlife Fund, Greenpeace and the Sierra Club. These organizations support SFC more strongly and direct their campaigns at forcing paper and furniture suppliers to only sell products that are FSC certified.

Since their voluntary certification, however, Tembec has received praise from environmental groups and has earned recognition within their community. This, he says, translates into good recognition for both the company and the FSC.

Although Tembec encourages companies to follow suit and become certified, particularly with the FSC, Lopez says there are inherent risks in certification. One of these risks, he states, is that the standards adopted by a particular auditing body may become obsolete or irrelevant. The market may change in its preference for a particular standard code.

"It would be a shame to go through all that cost for nothing," he says.

Lopez says he is also concerned over the possibility, although he characterizes it as "remote," that certifying bodies may become controlled by individuals or organizations that push the requirements threshold too high. Currently, he says FSC certification is "difficult, but achievable."

He says he believes that businesses will see that certification can help their bottom-line by looking at them as one example.

www.tembec.com

www.fsc.org/fsc

By JOSEPH QUESNEL

Northern Ontario Business