If you thought 2024 was an up and down year, I think we can all agree that 2025 has certainly started out with a bang.
If you watched the press conference of Jan. 8, with President Donald Trump your jaw may have hit the floor, mine sure did! The implications of what Trump said is already making for a bumpy ride this year. Kitchen cabinet manufacturers in Canada who export to the U.S. are wondering how they will continue to export when they may face a 25% tariff. Suddenly our cheap Canadian dollar isn’t so cheap. And then there’s the cost of items coming up from the U.S. Added to this are Canada’s own political woes with the announcement of a $62 billion deficit, 50 per cent more than expected. We are in an election year and likely to see a new government. While immigration is now slowing, the housing crisis remains a high priority and we’ll see this debated over the next few months as campaigns on the election trail take form.
So how is your business planning for 2025 with all of this going on? Likely you are in a wait and see mode or maybe you’ve already stocked up on items you buy from the US because of the impending tariffs.
But apart from all this, we did get some good news recently.
At the end of December our industry, along with other wood industries subject to the Formaldehyde Emissions in Composite Wood Products (CANFER), were informed of the long-awaited release of the final amendment to the regulations. The announcement arrived with little fanfare, but should be celebrated.
This quiet victory means the industry dodged a bullet. The originally published regulations would have buried kitchen cabinet manufacturers (of all shapes and sizes) in a sea of paperwork. For larger manufacturers, the regulations could well have forced you to hire another person just to manage the compliance requirements (yep, it was going to be that bad). But, as I said, we dodged the bullet and now you won’t have to. There will be some minimal record-keeping requirements, but all can easily be incorporated into your normal business activities.
Collectively, the members of The Right Reg submitted over a hundred pages of very detailed commentary, and we are delighted that the government listened.We can all agree that rigorous environmental regulations protecting our planet, and our people are extremely important. But they also have to be realistic and manageable to ensure good compliance. We are proud to be a member of the “The Right Reg” coalition that was formed to provide a unified response to these regulations. Collectively, the members of The Right Reg submitted over a hundred pages of very detailed commentary, and we are delighted that the government listened. CANFER, in its final form, provides protection to both the industry and the public and places the primary burden of compliance on the original panel manufacturers and on importers, not the downstream companies or retailers.
A huge thank you goes out to those who contributed to this success including several associations, particularly the International Wood Products Association and the Composite Panel Association. The CKCA would also like to offer a very special thank you to Elizabeth Baldwin, Environmental Compliance Officer for Metropolitan Hardwood Floors, who coordinated the arduous task of reading the regulations and translating them into language that we could all understand as well as identifying the areas of concern and proposing amendments. Most importantly, a big thank you to the CKCA members who wrote the letters and contributed funds to the coalition. You did this quietly and humbly – you rock!
