Wood Industry Article on All about COFI/Canada Wood

Shawn Lawlor

By: Shawn Lawlor

Managing Director, Canada Wood Japan/COFI Japan

“Wood Industry” is a monthly magazine published by the Wood Technological Association of Japan, with the nominal circulation of 1,200.  Initially issued in 1946, this magazine is highly authorized in the wood industries and timber engineering academia in Japan.  The editorial committee chair recently asked COFI to write a 4-page article explaining all about COFI and Canada Wood Japan for the magazine.  The submitted article explains the history of the COFI Head Office, its functions and quality control scheme in the North American accreditation system of sawn lumber.  It also describes how COFI Japan office was established and how hard we worked to establish the 2×4 building code and dimension lumber grading rule.  The article also covers the Canada-Japan mutual recognition initiatives, resulting in the ministerial assignment of design stresses where NLGA grading rule is recognized by the MLIT*.  The establishment of Canada Wood Group is also mentioned in the article.  The final paragraph colludes the article with the recent technical efforts such as fire-resistive ministerial approvals, technical transfer on Midply Wall System and introducing technical information on NLT(nail-laminated timber).

*MILT: Ministry of Infrastructure, Land, Transport and Tourism