FPAC announces recipients of Jim Carr Forest Community Champion Award

NDP MP Gord Johns, High Level, Alta., Mayor Crystal McAteer and Princeton, B.C., Mayor Spencer Coyne are recipients of the 2025 Jim Carr Forest Community Champion Award.

The Forest Products Association of Canada (FPAC) has named MP Gord Johns, Mayor Spencer Coyne, and Mayor Crystal McAteer as recipients of the 2025 Jim Carr Forest Community Champion Award. The honour recognizes leaders who have shown outstanding commitment to Canada’s forest sector and the communities that rely on it.

“MP Johns, Mayor Coyne and Mayor McAteer are among Canadian forestry’s greatest ambassadors,” Derek Nighbor, FPAC president and CEO said in a press release. “They work closely with local industry and employees to create opportunity, they understand very well some of our sector’s greatest challenges like wildfire risks and trade issues and have proven that they are prepared to stand with the sector and its people — just like Jim did.”

Johns, the NDP MP for Courtenay–Alberni, B.C., said, “I am deeply honoured to receive this recognition. … Forestry has always been at the heart of our communities and our economy, and I believe its future lies in sustainable practices, innovation, clean energy and respect for the land and waters that sustain us.”