Established in 2000, the NOFC has held meetings and brought people together to facilitate understanding and help address issues facing the forest sector in northwestern Ontario.

The NOFC wants to improve the accessibility of forest sector information to community representatives, business leaders, government decision-makers, labour unions, First Nations and others with an interest in the forest sector. A key focus of the NOFC is to monitor important forest sector issues and evaluate their impact on the forest sector and forest-dependent communities in northwestern Ontario.

The NOFC envisions a well developed network of individuals and organisations with the capacity to enhance the exchange of information; work together to identify new information; and, provide assistance on integrating this information into decisions that affect the forest sector and forest-dependent communities.

With financial assistance from Industry Canada/FedNor, the Ministry of Northern Development and Mines, in addition to membership revenues, the NOFC is committed to ensuring that relevant, factual, and up to date information on the forest sector in northwestern Ontario is widely available.

Organisation Structure

NOFC membership includes but is not limited to 5 categories composed of Business, Labour, Communities, Academia and Government. Each of the member organisations has a single representative and an alternate, with the exception of the Northwestern Ontario Municipal Association and the Northwestern Ontario Associated Chambers of Commerce, who have two representatives.

Two forms of membership characterise the NOFC: Regular members, and Ex Officio members.

• Regular members are drawn from Business, Labour, Communities and Academia. Regular members in most cases vote on NOFC affairs, and provide material or kind support to the organisation.
• Ex Officio members are drawn from government. Ex-Officio members participate for information purposes only and hold no voting position.

Executive Committee

The affairs of the NOFC are managed by a five-member Executive Committee drawn from NOFC members. The Executive Committee manages the affairs of the NOFC, provides input on strategic direction and makes decisions on behalf of the general membership. Members of the Executive Committee fulfill a one year term and are eligible for re-election by the general membership.

The General Membership has the opportunity to submit nominations for any of the five Executive positions prior to each Annual General Meeting, at which the Executive Committee is confirmed. The current Executive Committee consists of:

• Lorne Crawford (Chair/ President) - Northwest Strategies Inc.
• Marvin Pupeza (Secretary/ Treasurer) - CEP Union
• Lynn Peterson - NOMA, Thunder Bay
• Brian Campbell - Confederation College
• Norm Bush - Weyerhaeuser
• Bert Hennessey - Buchanan Forest Products

        Contact Northwestern Ontario Forest Council

• Kyle McMullen - Program Manager