B.C. Premier David Eby is issuing a stark warning to the federal government as the province’s softwood lumber industry faces additional duties and tariffs from the U.S., which he said has left many forest companies on a “razor’s edge of survival.”
Softwood lumber being exported from B.C. to the U.S. now faces an estimated 45 per cent in extra taxes.
“Today marks the beginning of an additional attack on workers, on communities, on the Canadian forest sector by President Donald Trump, an additional 10 per cent tariff on Canadian forest products,” Eby said at a press conference on Tuesday.
“This additional tariff means that Canadian wood has a higher tariff rate going to the United States than Russia does. I want to let that sink in. That there’s a higher tariff on Canadian wood going to the United States, wood that has built American homes, provided affordable and high quality building materials for families and governments across the United States, our friends south of the border with whom we have worked side by side, fought side by side, that we have worse market access than Russia, an international pariah who has launched a war of aggression on Ukraine.”
Eby said the province is asking Prime Minister Mark Carney to make this issue one of national importance.
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“The contributions of the forest sector to the Canadian economy are massive,” he said.
“It provides a greater direct contribution to Canada’s GDP than auto parts and steel. It provides more direct employment across the country than either of those sectors. And so with this additional threat that we are facing from the president, we know that it isn’t just, oh, another thing that Donald Trump is saying. This threat is a direct threat to the livelihood, to the existence of mills in every corner of British Columbia.”
Eby said the softwood lumber industry is facing an existential threat from Trump that is going to hurt American families as well.
“We are calling on Ottawa to stand with us, all governments together, to ensure that they’re deploying the more than one billion dollars they’ve committed to the forest sector with urgency,” he added.
“There is no time to wait. Jobs and mills are on the line.”
Ravi Parmar, B.C.’s Minister of Forests, said the U.S. needs B.C.’s softwood lumber and that the tariffs are an attack on livelihoods. Parmar said the federal government needs to step up.
“Forest sectors are on the line; our forest sector here in Canada is on the line,” Parmar said.
“Workers, their livelihoods in communities are on the line. I’ve had a chance to be able to visit so many forest-dependent communities. I’ve been in on the ground and in for a number of years in forest sector communities, and I’ve been on the ground when workers lose their jobs. It is unpleasant, it is damaging to that community, and most importantly, it’s damaging to those families.”
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