Paper Excellence Group, the Richmond, British Columbia-based company that has taken a dominant share of Canada's forest products sector, is under renewed scrutiny over its business ties to Indonesia.
Environmental activist group Greenpeace Canada and Indonesian NGO Origa Nusantara filed a complaint with the Forest Stewardship Council on Wednesday, calling on the international non-profit organization to investigate the relationship between Paper Excellence and Asia Pulp and Paper (APP). A company with a documented history of deforestation must be officially recognized.
The groups said their investigations and media reports over the past two years showed the two companies to be subsidiaries controlled by Indonesia's Sinar Mas group. They want the council, the body that certifies forest management practices worldwide, to cut its ties with Paper Excellence and its subsidiaries, as it did with APP.
"This is a pivotal moment in history," said Shane Moffat, director of food and nature at Greenpeace Canada.
Development presents another challenge for Paper Excellence, which has quickly become Canada's largest pulp and paper company. Disqualification by the Financial Services Commission (FSC) may result in a company not being certified as a business practice. This could result in the loss of customers in Canada and the US. Many retailers, including IKEA, claim to use only FSC-certified or recycled wood.
In testimony to a House of Commons committee earlier this year, Paper Excellence executives said the company was owned by a single shareholder: Jackson Widzai, a businessman based in Asia. They acknowledge that Mr Widzaya received help from other family businesses for Paper Excellence in the early days, but say that help has stopped and the company is now completely independent of them.
"APP and Paper Excellence are two different companies," said Blair Dickerson, spokesperson for Paper Excellence. He said the company imports wood responsibly and works with environmental groups and experts to improve its performance and help fund environmental programs around the world.
“We believe that the decisions we make will, in the long term, improve the forests we depend on and the communities we belong to,” Ms. Dickerson said.
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Paper Excellence, which started with a single pulp mill in Saskatchewan 15 years ago, has recently incorporated much of Canada's forest products sector. This includes Catalyst Paper Corporation of British Columbia. It was acquired in 2019 by Montreal-based Domtar. In 2021, the deal with Resolute Forest Products Inc. was completed. Earlier this year.
That rapid growth has raised serious concerns, particularly among environmental groups who say the company's documented relationship with other Widzai family holdings, notably Cina Mas and APP (headed by Jackson's father), is bad for Canada because of environmental degradation APP.
After reports from The Globe and Mail and other media outlets earlier this year highlighted the growing impact of paper quality on Canada's forest products sector, the House of Commons Committee on Natural Resources was tasked with hearing from executives and seeking assurances from government officials. . . By doing that, it was done. Company executives and federal officials testified.
Members of Parliament, including Mr Widzaza, were invited to attend but declined the invitation, the committee clerk said. MPs could go further by subpoenaing the owner of Paper Excellence. However, this has not yet happened and will only take effect when Mr. Widzaza enters Canada.
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FSC is an international non-governmental organization dedicated to promoting responsible forest management worldwide. It has a certification system that allows companies and consumers to choose wood, paper and other forest products made from materials that support responsible forestry.
According to the organization's database, Paper Excellence has several FSC-certified locations. This is in stark contrast to APP, which FSC withdrew in 2007 "based on publicly available information that APP engaged in destructive forestry practices". APP attempted to obtain recertification, but negotiations failed due to demands for greater transparency in APP's corporate structure.
FSC approval can be crucial for selling products to large retailers who may be concerned about public backlash if they are linked to poor forestry practices. After a crackdown by Greenpeace in early 2010, several major customers, including Kraft Foods, Unilever plc and Staples Inc, dropped APP.
FSC Canada has reviewed the shareholder interests between APP Group and Paper Excellence several times — most recently a few weeks ago — and each time concluded there was no ownership relationship between App and Paper, said Monica Patel, spokeswoman for FSC Canada. no “That's why Paper Excellence is FSC certified,” he said.
A separate FSC spokesperson told The Globe last spring that the board introduced a new policy earlier this year that "broadened the scope of impermissible activities" and focused more on the activities of business groups as a whole. A separate company. It was not immediately clear what effect this would have on the future FSC Paper Excellence rating.
