Quebec Wooden-Heads

Bloc Quebecois Members of Parliament can be distinguished from all other MPs in the House of Commons by the sterling quality of their feverish imaginations, always on the search for some new ways and means to be brought into the law of the land to favour Quebec. The latest is a private member's bill for the government to enact legislation requiring the use of wood in construction or renovations of government buildings.

Back to the Middle Ages. When it made sense to use wood for the framing and construction of middling-sized buildings. High-rise towers, not so much. If government were in the business of building garden sheds and bungalows for its employees, wood-frame construction might make good sense. And then the forestry industry in Quebec which has suffered so badly in later years, could celebrate and become re-invigorated. As if.

Not so much in federal infrastructure-building in and around British Columbia, so as to advantage the lumber industry there; too bad, so sad. When the private member's bill was first introduced for the specific end-purpose of revitalizing Quebec's forestry industry fallen on hard times, the Liberals and the NDP fell all over themselves to support its principle.

The Conservatives thought a little harder about the logical consequences. Even Pat Martin of the NDP who knows something about carpentry has had sober second thoughts, regretting that the bill has "tied Parliament in knots". It's one of those things where you're damned whichever way you turn. Don't support the bill and you let down a disgruntled, entitled Quebec-based industry.

Support the bill and the country's construction industry is in throes of agony. Were the legislation to be passed, Public Works and Government Services Canada would have to re-write building codes for the federal government properties it administers. Can we imagine the remedial work being done on the historical buildings within the Parliamentary Precinct reliant on Quebec-derived lumber products?

As though cost-sensitive projects at a cost-sensitive time in the country's present situation of growing federal economic austerity will not produce further aggravating problems. The Canadian Construction Association is none too pleased. Such a sea change would impact deleteriously on architects, designers and contractors accustomed to selecting the best and most reliable materials for specific sites and properties.

The current National Building Code restricts wood buildings to four stories in height. We're not building them too low these days. And even if protectionist "Quebec lumber" amendments were put into place it would not, in the final analysis, provide that large a boost to the lumber industry. Nothing comparable to a renewed and vigorous U.S. housing market.