UMQ Forestry Committee holds first meeting of 2023

UMQ Forestry Committee holds first meeting of 2023

The members of the Forestry Committee of the Union of Quebec Municipalities (UMQ) held their first meeting of 2023 yesterday (February 14). The municipal officials identified several challenges to address in the long term, to ensure the economic vitality of the regions, the promotion forestry trades as well as the sustainability of the resource.

“We are at a turning point for our forest regions. In order for the forestry sector to remain a structuring economic lever, we must collectively review our ways of doing things. I am thinking of the need to decentralize decision-making, for resource management specific to the realities of each environment,” said Benoit Lauzon, the head of the committee and mayor of Thurso (translated).”To climate resilience, so that our forests are more diversified and less at risk of disease and hazards. Finally, we must innovate more than ever and take advantage of the great potential of biomass, for example, to allow our regions to optimize the use of the resource while generating new local spinoffs.”

The labor shortage, the pandemic, global geopolitics and the inflationary context have had major repercussions for all sectors of the economy and particularly for the forestry sector.

“For us, you have to see these as opportunities. We must have a long-term vision for our regions. We are going to work on it now, with all the players in the field,” Lauzon concluded.

The full (French-language) interview with Lauzon is available here.