The Chronicle Herald (Provincial)
Lumber becomes ‘the new copper’ as thefts spike
Framer Andre Portelance was wondering why a police helicopter was recently circling the sky near his construction site in the northwest Calgary community of Sage Bluff.
He soon discovered the chase was on for a lumber thief, one of a tsunami of thefts driven by the high price of construction wood.
“This guy was putting in a fence and had gone for lunch, and a guy just pulled up in a cube van and started loading it up with his wood,” said Portelance.
“The guy came back, saw the cube van and followed him, and pretty soon the police helicopter was up here. I think they caught him.”
Portelance himself has taken precautions, pointing to lumber stacked high on the street nearby.
“I’m hoping (thieves) won’t dig through it; it doesn’t seem like they dig very far for the stuff,” he said.
But the skyrocketing price of lumber, he said, has definitely made it worthwhile for criminals to make the effort.
A sheet of sheathing that once sold for $16 will likely be worth $80 next week when prices bump up again, said Portelance, who’s normally only had to worry about his tools being stolen.
“We’re trying to be as secure as we can, but there’s only so much you can do,” he said. “It’s the new copper.” The COVID-19 pandemic has been blamed for much of the spike in lumber prices, which have increased by as much as 350 per cent.
In the early phase of the pandemic last year, many lumber mills closed, drying up supply. When unexpected pent-up demand picked up, it couldn’t be met.
The Calgary police crime prevention unit has contacted building companies to warn them of the heightened theft risk while reminding them what they can do to secure their supplies.
BUILDING SITES
The worst-hit areas are where new construction activity is highest, said a police spokeswoman.
A construction worker helping build a single-family home in the northwest Rocky Ridge Ranch area said those in the industry don’t need any warning.
“It’s happening everywhere,” said Vikas Bhana.
Thieves prowling construction sites, he said, have been targeting two-by-fours and two-by-six sections of lumber.
“This piece of wood that was $28 is now worth $90,” said Bhana, pointing to a section of wall plywood.
“It’s more expensive than gold.”
Bhana said that for the first time since he’s been in the business, he and his co-workers have been packing up lumber and taking it with them at the end of the day.
“Most of the guys don’t drop the lumber at the job site (far ahead of time),” he said.
At a condo construction site a few blocks away, lumber supplies are stored behind red metal fencing under the gaze of surveillance cameras.
“Before all of this, we didn’t use fencing,” said worker Aric Nicholson.
“There’s people already living here, too, so that deters (criminals).”
While theft of materials from construction areas has always been a problem, the high price of lumber and the resulting crime has added a costly new wrinkle, said Paul Boskovich, president of Genstar Development Co.
“It’s an issue across the province and builders are having to really be careful,” said Boskovich, who’s also chair of the Building Industry Land Development Association of Alberta.
“There’s been some pretty brazen thefts.”
COSTLY LOSSES
Boskovich said he’s aware of one instance in which $50,000 worth of lumber was lifted from a single-family home site “but I am sure more significant losses have occurred on larger multi-family projects.”
In one case, thieves hotwired a zoom boom, drove it to a nearby building site and used it to lower lumber onto trucks. They’ve also gone to the trouble of removing roof trusses and floor joists from homes under construction, said Boskovich.
Stolen lumber is being resold to home renovators and through grey market operators, activities that are difficult to track because there are few identifiers on the wood, he said.
The higher cost of lumber is already adding $50,000 to the price of a $500,000 home, and thefts will only add to that price tag, he said.
“It’s ultimately going to be borne by the new home buyers who are already bearing an inflationary pressure,” said Boskovich.
“We’ve seen the construction process slow from COVID and this is exacerbating that.”
To combat theft, builders are taking smaller deliveries of lumber and mounting stricter surveillance, he said.
In some parts of B.C., criminals lured by the lucrative material have been poaching trees.