B.C. Premier David Eby is calling on the federal government to protect forestry workers as new tariffs imposed by the U.S. president threaten to topple an already struggling industry.
On Tuesday, the U.S. slapped a 10 per cent tariff on Canadian lumber — on top of a 35 per cent duty already in place.
The U.S. also put a 25 per cent tariff on some Canadian wood products, like furniture.
The news is devastating for communities like Grand Forks, B.C., where local mill operations are already precarious.
In early September, Interfor announced curtailments across all of its North American operations, including in Grand Forks. But last week, the community learned the mill would be shuttered indefinitely.
Doug Gailey is one of hundreds impacted by the shut down.
“When [the closure] first started, we thought we’re going back on Oct. 6 … and then the first of October there they told everybody it was going to be indefinite,” Gailey told CBC’s Daybreak South.
He said it was a big shock to the community.
“Now we just gotta sit and wait and see what’s going to happen.”
Additional 10% tariff on softwood lumber, 25% on some wood products, now in effect|MVS|1000
In an email to CBC News, Intefor’s vice-president of corporate communications and government relations Svetlana Kayumova said the decision to reduce operations in September, and then to halt operations in Grand Forks indefinitely, was the result of “persistently weak market conditions and ongoing economic uncertainty.”
“We continue to face significant market headwinds and the ongoing impact of U.S. trade actions, including increasing softwood lumber duties,” she said. “These pressures have made it difficult to operate certain facilities sustainably. “
During a news conference on Tuesday, Eby demanded the feds provide funding to keep forestry workers afloat during what he described as “an additional attack” on the industry.
“When auto-parts makers … when steelworkers in Ontario, when their jobs are threatened, it’s treated as an emergency, and rightly so,” Eby said.
“What we’re asking for today is that that same respect, that same concern, that same sense of emergency is shared for the forest sector in this country. “
Forestry Minister Ravi Parmar said he wants to see funding “not tomorrow, but today.”
“We can’t wait. Our forest sector here in Canada is on the line.”
In a letter to the feds, Eby points out that Canada is now paying higher tariffs on lumber than Russia.
“Our friends south of the border, with whom we have worked side by side, fought side by side, we have worse market access than Russia, an international pariah, who has launched a war of aggression on Ukraine,” he said during the news conference.
In the letter, Eby said that given the current status of the forest sector in B.C., he worries many companies will not survive — which would be devastating for hundreds of workers and their families, and entire communities in British Columbia that are dependent on the forestry industry.
