Women in Wood: A Year of Support and Mentorship

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At West Fraser, women represent approximately 15 percent of the total workforce, a level that is fairly consistent across the forest sector. However, we believe we need to increase female representation to better reflect the communities in which we operate and build a stronger, more diverse team.

To help attract and retain women in our workforce, West Fraser undertakes a variety of initiatives, such as conference support, training and supporting employee-led initiatives. One of these initiatives is the Women in Wood group in Slave Lake, Alberta.

The Slave Lake Women in Wood group was formed in early 2022 by Tracey Courser, Woodlands Manager, and Shannon Fehr, Carbon Portfolio Program Engineer. The program’s goal is to optimize the work environment for all female team members. The group explores a variety of topics of interest to support women at the Slave Lake mill locations by providing mentoring, career-development support and quarterly discussion sessions with speakers from West Fraser leadership. Adrian Plante, Vice President, Canadian Lumber, was the speaker at a recent session.
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“Initiatives such as Women in Wood provide space for meaningful dialogue, to address issues and raise opportunities, consistent with the goals of our diversity committees and our commitment of continuous improvement,” said Adrian. “Sessions are not only an investment in the lives of each participant but also as an investment in our West Fraser community that can grow and continue to have a positive benefit for years to come.”
_{Adrian Plante, Vice President, Canadian Lumber}

Approximately 20 women participate in each quarterly session and represent a range of careers such as a logging supervisor, a silviculture forester, a safety resource and a lab technician.

Over their first year together, the Women in Wood’s discussions have explored the following topics: growing and building a career at West Fraser, inclusion in forestry, work-life balance, updates from the diversity council and setting personal values. We look forward to hearing more from the group in 2023, which has now expanded to include High Prairie Forest Products team members.