Brian Fehr supports the growth rural B.C. economies and contributes to the sustainability and safety of the forest industry through his innovations in the industry, commitment to maintaining operations in the North, and boards he serves on.
Although having only a Grade 12 education, he built a billion dollar group of companies — BID Group — that provides innovative technical systems and construction services for wood products industries in B.C., across Canada and into the United States and employs 400 in B.C. and 1400 more throughout North America.
As Fehr built his company, his personal and emotional commitment to the health and well-being of rural B.C. — and in particular Vanderhoof, Prince George, Salmon Arm and Canal Flats — remains strong. He is expanding manufacturing facilities in Vanderhoof, and is renovating a head office there. In Canal Flats, a community devastated by the rationalizing of the forest industry, Fehr has purchased a small steel fabrication business and he expects to employ 100 people at the facility within the next five years.
Always with an eye to innovation and through its subsidiary DelTech, the BID Group has developed biomass energy systems that lower energy costs and greenhouse emissions using wood waste that was formerly burned by the forest industry. Following the Babine and Lakeland sawmill explosions, Fehr developed a dust mitigation system that would not allow recurrence of these disasters and BID retrofitted all of the 15 Canfor sawmills with the system.
He foresaw the potential of artificial intelligence and the potential for machinery to make decisions that would improve productivity. His ‘profiling’ technology allows a log to be processed into lumber with a single pass, cutting labor costs. Auto grading, which uses computers to optimize the value of each piece of lumber by making decisions at a much higher production rate than manually grading lumber, has revolutionized the industry through minimizing loss in process, improvements in the value of finished products and cost reduction. His predictive maintenance processes for sawmills means equipment can be fixed before a breakdown occurs, increasing worker safety, and improving efficiency.
From a young age, Fehr struggled with alcohol and drug addiction that threatened both his life and financial stability. At 37 he focused on his recovery, overcoming odds against him. He now gives others a second chance by hiring them. As well, he is a champion for the Baldy Hughes Therapeutic Community in Prince George and participates on the Northern Interior Health Board. Fehr served on the board of the BC Association for Crane Safety where he championed the need for better training and changes to WorkSafe regulations. He also served on the board of directors of the BC Safety Authority (now Technical Safety BC).
