Wood producers, users honoured: Wood works! holds its first annual gala to recognize contributions. (Forestry).

Eleven winners of an exciting and unique new awards program for Northern Ontario were honoured on Nov. 14 at a gala held at the Clarion Resort Pinewood Park in North Bay.

Awards were presented at the event in a broad spectrum of categories that celebrate Northern Ontario's growing "build with wood" culture.

In Northern Ontario forestry is a main engine of the economy. Building with wood contributes to the economic prosperity of the North by supporting more than 40 forestry-dependent communities and 92,000 jobs in the province of Ontario. The Wood WORKS! Awards Program honours wood producers and wood users who, through their efforts, make a positive contribution to this essential aspect of the Northern Ontario economy.

From the forest to the final product, awards were given for sustainable forestry, contributions to the value-added sector, education, excellence and innovation in wood design, as well as individual and community leadership.

"The level of interest and involvement in the gala in this inaugural year has been inspiring," says Jim Lopez, Wood WORKS! provincial steering committee chair.

This year's winners were chosen from more that 55 nominations that came from across Northern Ontario.

"The awards gala marks a very important milestone on the journey towards a wood culture in Northern Ontario," says Marianne Berube, project manager for Northern Ontario. "It is an opportunity not only to celebrate excellence in the building and design community and the forest industry, it is also an opportunity to share with one another the impressive work that is going on within the vast, yet remarkably close-knit community that is Northern Ontario...we are proud to recognize the champions of wood whose vision and talent are breaking new ground and helping build the future of Northern Ontario."

There were two winners in the Forests for the Future category. The Sustainable Forests Award went to the Lake Abitibi Model Forest in Cochrane for the significant impact they have on the way forests are viewed and managed in northeastern Ontario. The Industry Leader Award went to Tembec for their leadership towards a new standard in environmental certification, and their ground breaking partnership with the World Wildlife Fund.

The Education and Communication Award was presented to the Canadian Ecology Center in Mattawa and the Award for Value-Added Contribution was presented to Anthony-Domtar in Sault Ste. Marie for the new I-joist mill.

Many excellent submissions were received for the three project awards. The winners demonstrated both common sense and creativity in designing with wood and are leaders in their field.

The heritage Show Us Your Wood Award for an existing public building that creates pride in wood structures went to Sedun and Kanerva Architects for Sudbury's Finlandia Village Hoivakoti Nursing Home. Kuch Stephenson Architects of Thunder Bay won the Wood Design Award for a private building for the Elk Lake Eco Resource Centre in Elk Lake, and H. Bradford Green Architects and ANO Architects of Sudbury were the winners of the Wood Design Award for a public building for the Fort Albany Education Centre in Fort Albany on the James Bay coast.

The four awards in the Building the Future category were created to recognize the decision-making individuals who regularly specify, design or build commercial, industrial and institutional projects with wood, or who contribute to the selection of wood in a project.

The Building the Future Award for Community Leader went to Mayor Jamie Lim of Timmins for her local, provincial and national efforts in support of a wood culture.

The Engineering Award was given to UMA Engineering of Thunder Bay for the Fort Albany Education Centre.

The Architect Award was given to Tye Farrow of Salter Farrow Pilon Architects, Toronto for the Thunder Bay Regional Hospital Recognized as an international leader in wood design, Farrow won this award both for for his understanding of the cultural roots of Northern Ontario that support the inclusion of wood in public buildings, and for his tenacious approach to dealing with obstacles that could have otherwise become barriers to the use of wood in such a large project.

Larocque Elder Architects of North Bay were the winners of the Building the Future Jury Award. The jury selected them from among all the nominations received because of their consistent support for wood in public buildings in Northern Ontario, their understanding of wood's advantages, and the leadership shown by their use of wood in many different applications and building types.

Andy Mitchell, secretary of state, Rural Development with FedNor, was the keynote speaker at the gala. During his address he praised Wood WORKS! for their accomplishments to date and reaffirmed the Government of Canada's support for this progressive Northern Ontario initiative.

Mitchell announced a FedNor contribution of $450,000 to the Canadian Wood Council to continue and expand the Wood WORKS! initiative in Northern Ontario. The Government of Canada's contribution will be matched by industry through the Canadian Wood Council, giving Wood WORKS! a total operating budget of $900,000 over the next two years. The funding will permit the project leaders to continue their work in Northern Ontario and to hire a full-time technical consultant to expand the services of the office.

Dan Newman, Minister of Northern Development and Mines also attended the gala as a guest speaker and offered his congratulations to the award winners, and to Wood WORKS! The Northern Ontario Heritage Fund Corp. was an award sponsor at the event.