Even though he has always been deadly serious about doing the best work safely, a sense of playfulness infuses much of what is uttered by Bob Marquis, owner of Bob Marquis Contracting Ltd.–especially when it comes to his heritage. 

He insinuates, with his tongue partly in cheek, that if the French Revolution of the 18 century had come several decades earlier, five generations of the Marquis family falling trees, building roads and installing bridges out of their home base in Powell River would never have happened. 

In 1911, Joseph Marquis moved from Quebec to Powell River and was soon earning $7 per day from Brooks Scanlon Lumber Co., filing saws for hand fallers—a job that eventually would be taken up by his son, Emile. “This was at a time when fallers made $6 daily, which demonstrated that you could make even more money serving the logging industry as you could harvesting,” Bob says. 

Emile’s son and Bob’s father, Lawrence, a logger, started a contracting company in the 1960s. And after honing his skills in a variety of positions for Lawrence and at other companies, Bob launched Bob Marquis Contracting in the late 1980s.  

One outcome of being part of a multi-generational family of foresters is an extensive knowledge of how the industry has evolved, and Bob, now 63, says he was still a young man when he realized the seismic shift of industry standards—and, unfortunately, how the public perceived forestry.  

He explains, “In Joseph’s time things were done quite differently in the bush, but today we have the strongest forest practice codes in the world. And yet we’ve been fighting the stigma of the ‘bad old days’ of logging since the 1960s, amplified in recent years by social media.” 

But like the generations of Marquis before him, Bob never once considered working anywhere except in the bush. “When my dad retired in the late 1980s a reporter asked him, ‘What do you think of the forest sector?’ and he replied half-jokingly, ‘I can either stay home and go broke or I can work and go broke, so I chose the latter’—and I share that sentiment.  

“I was dumping logs by the age of 12 even though I didn’t have enough body weight to operate the pedals and had to push against the roof of the cab to do so. I worked for many people, and I’ve had my share of hardships [Bob’s only brother, Bill, a hand faller, was killed on the job in 1984]; but I couldn’t imagine doing anything else.” 

Bob points out that the future was always uncertain. “That was true when I married my wife Gianna in the early 1980s, and it was equally true when I started my own business a few years later.” 

For the record, Bob Marquis Contracting has distinguished itself by having installed over 150 bridges (from 40 to 140 feet) and innumerable kilometres of roads up and down the Coast. “Several years ago, we spent eight months on a job finishing no less than 17 bridges,” Bob’s son Brett proudly states. This is in addition to harvesting timber for the Powell River community forest and other organizations.  

Still, an outsider would be hard pressed to understand why the Marquis family is so tenacious in such a tumultuous industry, so Bob digs deeper. “When you’re entrenched in the bush as a logging family, your destiny is laid out before you—and that’s a great source of comfort and security. And in a remote place like Powell River, you know everybody, and everybody is determined to help each other out. This kind of life is increasingly rare, but it has always given me the ability to keep working hard and hoping for the best.”  

Brett agrees. At 33, he is in the process of taking over the family business, and he too appreciates the camaraderie that fortifies people working in the bush. “I love every aspect of forestry,” he says. “Dad passed along to me the great work ethic that my grandfather gave him, but at the end of the day it’s a love of the outdoors and the people that inspires me. That and the incredible sense of seeing how much you accomplish in any given day.” 

Even though Bob is passing the reins over to the fifth generation of Marquis, he has no intention of leaving the industry he loves so much. “I don’t fish or golf, and the only thing I’m looking forward to with more spare time is playing with my grandkids,” he says. “I’ll keep working for as long as possible.” 

As far as Brett is concerned, Bob is here to stay. “For one thing, there’s nobody better than him at quoting a job,” he says, laughing. “I have no intention of letting him go.”