The Forest Products Association of Canada launched a recruitment campaign earlier this month to attract young workers to the lumber industry.
After a decade of downsizing, Canada's producers of lumber, pulp and paper find themselves needing to replace 40,000 retiring baby boomers and fill the 20,000 new positions created as the recovering U.S. housing market brings more work to sawmills. But the first step is improving the industry's image.
"For years, forestry has been seen as a dead or dying sector, and the industry has to correct that image with young people to show that that there are lots of opportunities for growth, and you can make a worthwhile career out of it," said Mark Kennedy, an analyst with CIBC World Markets Inc.
The FPAC created thegreenestworkforce.ca, a website highlighting the renewability of lumber, that is meant to draw workers into the sawmills and away from the oil fields and mines. To bring in new workers, the site is hosting an internship contest where applicants upload YouTube videos in hopes of being voted the top 40 guaranteed an interview for the eight internship positions. Each of the selected interns will receive an iPad mini, and one will win $5,000.
