State trade fact sheets - Louisiana

La Salle Lumber

In 2019, LaSalle Lumber Company opened the first new sawmill built in the state in more than two decades, bringing together two family-owned businesses that have been involved in the forest industry for generations.

The new, highly-automated sawmill, which employs 115 people, is a joint venture between Hunt Forest Products of Ruston, Louisiana, and Tolko Industries, Ltd., a Canadian company that produces a wide range of forest products for customers around the world. Along with skilled job opportunities, this partnership provides a local outlet for the abundant inventory of southern yellow pine.

Located in La Salle Parish, a region founded on forestry, this venture boosts the local economy while welcoming in a new generation of technology to the state’s lumber industry.

CGI Invests in Acadiana’s Talent

Montreal-based CGI has created more than 1,500 jobs by hiring workers and building state-of-the-art information technology (IT) facilities in small towns and non-metro areas across the United States. Nowhere has the strategy been more successful than in Louisiana.

In 2016, CGI opened a $13.1 million, 50,000 square foot onshore IT service center in Lafayette and remains an anchor tenant of the 143-acre Research Park of the University of Louisiana at Lafayette. The project also included a state-funded, 10-year, $4.5 million higher education initiative with a goal to triple the number of undergraduate degrees awarded annually by the University’s School of Computing and Informatics.

Today, Lafayette is one of seven small and mid-sized communities nationwide that have become partners in the success of CGI’s nationwide onshoring strategy.

Our Common Goals

The Canada–U.S. relationship is deeply rooted in our shared values, history and vision for the future. At the top of our priority list is ending the COVID-19 pandemic at home and abroad by strengthening efforts to control the pandemic, collaborating on public health responses, and building resilience against future outbreaks. We are working closely together to defeat the virus by responding to new variants, following expert advice, and supporting global access to COVID-19 vaccines.

Along with combating COVID-19, we are committed to building back better, accelerating climate ambitions, advancing diversity and inclusion, bolstering security and defense, and building global alliances. Canada and the U.S. will continue to work together on these shared goals in the years to come.