Ottawa Announces N.B. Digital Forestry Centre to Transform Industry

The federal government announced new funding for a new centre that seeks to digitalize the forestry sector.

The New Brunswick Strategic Innovation Centre in Digital Forestry, which will be a collaboration between the Northern Hardwoods Research Institute and ResearchNB, will create new tools to “improve how fibre is managed across supply chains,” according to federal Natural Resources Minister Tim Hodgson.

“That means more reliable supply, more efficient cost-competitive operations, better informed investment decisions, lower cost and better competitiveness for the industry right here in New Brunswick,” said Hodgson.

The federal government will fund $50 million of the project’s expected $86-million price tag through a grant.

The rest of the funding will come from a mix of ResearchNB and the provincial Department of Natural Resources.

The grant is conditional on “project approval and pending final due diligence.”

When asked to elaborate on those conditions, the minister didn’t provide any specifics, only saying he’s “highly confident” the project will proceed.

Digitalizing the sector

The new centre aims to help “identify, track and use fibre resources across the supply chain,” according to a release from the feds.

Hodgson said this could be done by creating a digital twin of woodlots, which would then allow forestry companies to gameplan how to harvest that lumber.

“Whether it’s the initial decision on harvesting which trees go to which facility, how much of the tree is gonna end up in each type of product,” said Hodgson.

“They can do that all with AI and dramatically reduce the cost and improve the yields in the forest.”

Gaetan Pelletier, the executive director of the Northern Hardwoods Research Institute, said one concrete example of how digitalizing the sector would lead to savings is making how lumber is transported more efficient.

He said 40 percent of lumber trucks travelling with an empty load, which could be solved through digitalization.

“To reduce this 40 percent, what we call empty miles, by digitalization, by optimization, by centralizing the dispatch of those 200, 300 trucks in New Brunswick, we could save annually $25 million,” said Pelletier.

The push to overhaul the forestry sector using artificial intelligence comes at a time of increased anxiety over the future of technology and how it may impact jobs in the province.

This is especially true when it comes to the forestry industry, which is a major employer in the province.

But Pelletier said he expects digitalization will lead to more jobs.

“I honestly personally cannot see how this will take away jobs because we’re going to grow our sector,” said Pelletier.

Source: CBC