Feds announce funding to digitalize forestry industry

Federal Natural Resources Minister Tim Hodgson announced the funding of the New Brunswick Strategic Innovation Centre in Digital Forestry. The centre, which will be a collaboration between the Northern Hardwood Research Institute and ResearchNB, aims to create new tools to help manage wood fibre across the supply chain. 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 so what might those new tools look like Hodgson says the center could create digital twins of woodlots this would allow woodlot owners to game plan how best to harvest lumber but the center could also streamline how lumber gets to market experts say 40% of lumber trucks traveling on the road are traveling with an empty load. This could be solved through digitalization. To reduce this 40% 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. The federal government will fund $50 million of the project's expected $86 million price tagged through a grant. The rest of the funding will come from a mix of Research NB and the Provincial Department of Natural Resources. The grant is conditional on, quote, project approval and pending final due diligence. When asked to elaborate on these conditions, the Minister didn't provide any specifics, only saying he's highly confident the project will proceed.