OEvents, I’m excited to welcome you back to the beautiful city of Prince George for the sixth edition of Canada North Re
ter two years. This year, we continue our tradition of showcasing the latest cuttingedge equipment, groundbreaking services, and state-of-the-art technology that are
Thank You for Joining Us at CNRE 2025
This Official Show Guide was proudly brought to you by
Thank you to all exhibitors, attendees, and partners who made this year’s event a success. We’re proud to support Canada’s resource industries—on the ground and in print.
from page 3
that have made this event possible. A huge thank you also goes out to our incredible sponsors, Logging & Sawmilling Journal, Supply Post and Western Equipment Ltd., whose unwavering support has been integral to making this event a reality.
This year, you can expect to be amazed by an impressive lineup of indoor and outdoor exhibits, where you’ll find everything from heavy machinery displays to the latest high-tech solutions. Whether you’re planning a large infrastructure project or looking for ways to optimize your operations, Canada North Resources Expo is the place to be.
Thank you for joining us one again at this key industry event – enjoy the show!
Mark Cusack
National Show Manager, Master Promotions, a division of Marketplace Events
Prince George: Home of the Canada North Resources Expo— and a rich forest industry history
Prince George is built on the forest industry. It has been since 1914, when the first Grand Trunk Pacific train puffed across the Fraser River bridge into Prince George. The train’s arrival connected a country—and created a city. The ties between forest and city remain intact. A recent study helped illustrate the intertwined complexity of the relationship more than a century later.
The British Columbia Council of Forest Industries (COFI) in collaboration with the Forest Products Association of Canada commissioned a study to examine the supply chain and community benefits from the forest industry to a dozen large and small communities across B.C. And Prince George was one of them.
The study investigated the operating
expenditures and capital investments created by the forest industry during the calendar year of 2023. The study didn’t include monies paid by the forest industry to the provincial government for things like stumpage payments. Nor did it include investments made outside Prince George necessary for sustaining operations.
The study revealed that the Prince George forest industry spent $833 million in expenditures during the year, involving transactions with 935 vendors.
The figures didn’t tell Simon Yu much he didn’t already understand in general terms.
“Forestry not only provides diverse employment opportunities—from foresters to tech developers—but also supports many
small and medium sized businesses. The forest industry was, is and always will be, the backbone of our community, fostering economic growth and enhancing the quality of life for our residents,” declared the city’s mayor.
Benefits flowing from the symbiosis between forest and regional communities is not limited to Prince George. The COFI study clearly demonstrated that. The study showed, for example, that Quesnel benefited in the same year by about $251 million from the forest industry supply chain, while in Williams Lake the corresponding figure was $233 million involving 355 vendors.
“Small and medium (sized) businesses are the heart of rural communities,” emphasized Surinderpal Rathor, the mayor of Williams Lake. “The significance of the forest industry in creating the conditions that allow these businesses to thrive cannot be underestimated.”
There’s a further factor that shouldn’t be underestimated either.
Central and northern B.C.—with Prince George at its epicentre—developed an international reputation. It was recognized not just in traditional marketplaces like the United States and Japan but in countries like Sweden, Finland and Germany as Canada’s leading softwood lumber producer, with an extensive and integrated forest industry infrastructure.
The trio of a quality forest, the ingenuity of people in the forest industry and an accessible rail line to move finished wood products toward markets proved unstoppable. The construction in Prince George of three pulp mills in the 1960s created a population surge. Prince George was one of Canada’s fastest growing communities with an annual growth rate of 15.3 per cent. The provision of services proved a perpetual game of catch-up. Today, the city of Prince George has a population of around 75,000 people.
There’s a further interesting forest/ industry connection in Prince George. It keeps the lights on and buildings warm. Lakeland Mills—just across the railway tracks from downtown Prince George— has since 2012 provided wood residues from its sawmilling operations to fire a clean and efficient hot water energy system for civic and some other properties in the city’s core.
It was only comparatively recently that the forest industry began telling its story to the public. And it did so in an entertaining and informative fashion. The year was 1988 and the occasion was the unveiling of the Prince George Regional Forest Exhibition conference and trade show. The public was encouraged to attend. The trade show component of the event was a showcase through its indoor and outdoor exhibits to demonstrate what was new in the world of log harvesting and associated equipment. It also showed the public how the forest industry went about its daily work.
The idea of encouraging more public involvement in the forest industry this way began with a core of mainly Prince George-based forest equipment supply and service people. Their vision turned out to be larger and more successful than they had imagined.
“The show is the first and largest of its kind in western Canada,” said Bill Fehr, then chair of the Prince George Regional Forest Exhibition Society, who worked for
2025 SHOWGUIDE
Inland Diesel Ltd., in Prince George. “The intent of the exhibition is to give people a real feel for the forest industry. We plan on active displays and demonstrations to show people what the industry does,” continued Fehr.
“The associated events mean that everyone, the public, the companies, the associations and the other organizations will benefit and get something out of the exhibition.” And they did, for years to come. The display and demonstrations of the latest log harvesting equipment and events like loggers’ sports competitions were perennial crowd favourites in a unique public education carnival environment.
Discussions of the principal issues facing the logging sector were also key elements of the early Prince George shows. Some of the shakers and movers from government and industry spoke at the 1988 show and others which followed in a biennial format. Among the issues tackled at the initial show was an all-day session on the harvesting and processing of beetle killed timber and computer demonstrations as they related to the forest industry.
In 2010, there was a shift in the Prince George show’s focus; it was broadened to embrace other natural resources and their development in the region. “Resources Expo had a single purpose,” declared MaryAnne Arcand, then co-chair of the Prince George Regional Forest Exhibition
Society. “It is to create the opportunity for economic development in order to secure, economic, community and environmental sustainability for northern British Columbia.”
It didn’t take long for that format to evolve into Canada North Resources Expo (CNRE) in 2013. Master Promotions Ltd has become the principal organizer behind the event ever since. Master Promotions, a trade show organizing specialist based in Saint John, New Brunswick, links forces with locally-based organizing committees to contribute to the show’s contents. The formula has worked well.
The 2025 version of the CNRE is scheduled for May 23 and 24 at the CN Centre in Prince George. (The additional space at the venue quickly become home for an expanding Prince George Regional Forest Exhibition).
“We will have the addition of heavy equipment across the show floor,” promised Mark Cusack, Master Promotion’s national show manager. The CNRE has added several other natural resource industries to its flagship of forestry including oil and gas exploration, mining, transportation and power distribution. The CNRE of 2025 promises to reflect what’s new across the region’s natural resource landscape. In the process, the show will continue to reinforce the forest’s 111-year-old bond with Prince George.
