'The world is too messy for bureaucratic hurdles': Canada still bars Afghanistan aid
Ottawa has plans to finally stop blocking Canadian development aid to Afghanistan this year.
While lumber prices have plunged in recent weeks, industry experts say increased demand and limited supply will keep the cost of softwood lumber above pre-pandemic levels for years to come.
John Innes, dean of the University of British Columbia's Faculty of Forestry, told CTVNews.ca that lumber prices in North America reached their peak in May due to increased home renovations amid COVID-19.
"People were doing home renovations because they couldn't go on holiday, they were at home, they were wondering what to do with themselves, and so they decided they'd put in a new deck or some new fencing," Innes explained in a telephone interview on Thursday.
According to Natural Resources Canada, Eastern spruce-pine-fir was selling for US$1,400 per thousand board feet in March 2021, and Western spruce-pine-fir for $1,200.
In March 2020, these prices were between $550 and $600 per 1,000 board feet.
A record high was hit in mid-May with lumber prices reaching more than $1,600 for 1,000 board feet.
Innes said this high price and the easing of COVID-19 restrictions led Canadians to put their renovation projects on hold.
"People looked at the price of lumber and said, 'Well, I'm not paying that much'," he said.
The cash prices have since plummeted roughly a third of what they were at their peak, and currently cost around $500 per 1,000 board feet.
However, Innes said this decline does not mean that retailers will lower prices on the lumber they previously purchased at record cost.
"A lot of the retailers have lumber in stock that they purchased at very high prices, and they are not going to reduce the prices of those very much," he said. "So we've got to flush out that very high priced timber out of the retail market."
Paul Jannke, principal at Forest Economic Advisors (FEA), warned the current price of lumber likely won't fall much further.
Jannke told CTVNews.ca that the demand for softwood lumber is "simply much stronger" than it was five years ago due to increased housing starts. He said pine beetle infestations over the last decade have also reduced the allowable timber cut in the B.C. Interior by roughly 40 per cent, limiting supply.
"With that limitation, combined with a strong demand, we should see prices averaging higher than they have for the past five years," Jannke said in a telephone interview on Thursday.
Prior to the COVID-19 pandemic, Jannke said the five-year average price of lumber was about $380. Looking forward, he says industry experts expect "the new average for lumber prices" to be between $500 and $550 per 1,000 board feet.
"There will be some cyclicality there so if we have a recession or a setback in the housing market, housing starts decline, then we could see some downturn," Jannke said. "But aside from that, I would say that the long term average over the next 10 years is going to be significantly higher."
However, Jannke noted that these prices will be seen over the next five to 10 years, and noted that it will not be a sudden jump like that of the $1,600 price tags seen this past May.
"We do expect lumber price to be above where they were over the past five years, but well below where they were at the peak of the pandemic," Jannke said.
Ottawa has plans to finally stop blocking Canadian development aid to Afghanistan this year.
State-sponsored actors targeted security devices used by governments around the world, according to technology firm Cisco Systems, which said the network devices are coveted intrusion points by spies.
More than 115 people who viewed the solar eclipse in Ontario earlier this month experienced eye damage after the event, according to eye doctors in the province.
A Sherwood Park family says their new house is uninhabitable. The McNaughton's say they were forced to leave the house after living there for only a week because contaminants inside made it difficult to breathe.
The B.C. NDP has asked the federal government to recriminalize public drug use, marking a major shift in the province's approach to addressing the deadly overdose crisis.
A man has been handed a lengthy hunting ban and fined thousands of dollars for illegally killing a grizzly bear, B.C. conservation officers say.
The Ontario Provincial Police (OPP) says it's investigating an interaction between a uniformed officer and anti-Trudeau government protestors after a video circulated on social media.
A loud explosion was heard across Hamilton on Friday after a propane tank was accidentally destroyed and detonated at a local scrap metal yard, police say.
An emergency slide fell off a Delta Air Lines jetliner shortly after takeoff Friday from New York, and pilots who felt a vibration in the plane circled back to land safely at JFK Airport.
As if a 4-0 Edmonton Oilers lead in Game 1 of their playoff series with the Los Angeles Kings wasn't good enough, what was announced at Rogers Place during the next TV timeout nearly blew the roof off the downtown arena.
Mounties in Nanaimo, B.C., say two late-night revellers are lucky their allegedly drunken antics weren't reported to police after security cameras captured the men trying to steal a heavy sign from a downtown business.
A property tax bill is perplexing a small townhouse community in Fergus, Ont.
When identical twin sisters Kim and Michelle Krezonoski were invited to compete against some of the world’s most elite female runners at last week’s Boston Marathon, they were in disbelief.
The giant stone statues guarding the Lions Gate Bridge have been dressed in custom Vancouver Canucks jerseys as the NHL playoffs get underway.
A local Oilers fan is hoping to see his team cut through the postseason, so he can cut his hair.
A family from Laval, Que. is looking for answers... and their father's body. He died on vacation in Cuba and authorities sent someone else's body back to Canada.
A former educational assistant is calling attention to the rising violence in Alberta's classrooms.
The federal government says its plan to increase taxes on capital gains is aimed at wealthy Canadians to achieve “tax fairness.”