Canada and the United States are currently at loggerheads over softwood lumber duties, but Resolute Forest Products plans to donate a rail car full of Canadian lumber to hurricane-ravaged Houston, Texas.
Resolute is also challenging other Canadian lumber manufacturers to follow suit.
Company vice-president Seth Kursman said this is the time "to put politics aside and help our neighbours at a time of need."
Kursman, who moved to Canada from Houston 15 years ago, said he raised the idea of sending a "truckful" of lumber and supplies to help rebuild the Texas city, but company CEO Richard Garneau suggested sending a rail car and encouraging other companies to send a donation as well.
"There's a gesture of goodwill that I know is very much appreciated, having been in contact with local, state and federal officials in the U.S.," Kursman said in an interview on Monday.
He noted that a rail car can carry 100,000 board feet of lumber, and "that's a lot of lumber."
The Resolute contribution will come from a mill in Quebec.
