An NDP government has had no small part in breaking 小蓝视频’s forest industry, if you believe a number of industry observers and analysts. But can an NDP government now fix it?
The pledge to do so came from back-to-back resource conferences last week—the 小蓝视频 Resources Forum in Prince George and 小蓝视频 Truck Loggers Association Convention in Vancouver.
During the recent provincial election, Premier David Eby pledged to work towards an assured harvest of 45 million cubic metres annually, which would be an improvement of the current harvest levels, and last week, his new Forests Minister Ravi Parmar announced the vehicle for trying to hit that target: A new task force tasked with reforming 小蓝视频 Timber Sales, which manages 20 per cent of the province’s allowable annual cut for Crown or public timber.
“This is the most comprehensive review that the Ministry of Forests has been done,” Parmar said.
At last week’s Trucks Loggers Association Convention, Eby gave assurances the review would not be “just another study,” and hinted that 小蓝视频’s stumpage system could be reformed.
The stumpage rates 小蓝视频 charges logging companies to harvest trees on Crown land is viewed by Americans as a subsidy, and 小蓝视频 governments have been loath to reform it, lest it give the Americans more ammunition to lobby for duties.
“The elaborate process that we go through with 小蓝视频 Timber Sales to appease Americans on softwood lumber duties has absolutely not done that,” Eby said.
“The process is not working for anybody,” he added. “The point of this is we’re going to replace it with something else.”
小蓝视频’s forest sector faces a plethora of challenges, including current softwood lumber duties, a threat of additional 25-per-cent tariffs on lumber exports and metastasizing government rules and regulations that have increasingly restricted access to timber, the supply of which had already been reduced by past pine beetle infestations and wildfires.
More than a dozen sawmill and pulp mills have permanently shuttered in 小蓝视频 in the past four years, and in 2024, two forestry companies—Teal Jones and the San Group—were forced to file for creditor protection.
At the international level, 小蓝视频 lumber producers face the prospect of softwood lumber duties doubling next year, and there’s now the added fear of 25-per-cent tariffs being imposed by the Donald Trump administration.
“The tariff risk is real,” said Derek Nighbor, president of the Forest Products Association of Canada (FPAC). “This could be recession-serious type stuff. We need every government to be looking at every option.”
Domestically, the threat to 小蓝视频’s struggling forest sector comes from federal and provincial policies that increasingly restrict access to the working forests.
“On the federal side, I don’t want to hear anything more about strategies,” Nighbor said. “I want an action plan. We’ve studied this stuff to death. We know what needs to be done. Can we please just get on with it?”
Since coming to power in 2017, the 小蓝视频 NDP has implemented a rash of new policies and regulations crimping the timber supply, including old growth harvesting moratoria, new forest landscape plans, ecosystem-based land management, increasing parks and protected areas, shared land-use decision-making with First Nations and caribou habitat protection plans.
On paper, the allowable annual cut (AAC) for 小蓝视频 is 60 million cubic metres, Domenico Iannindinardo, CEO of Strategic Natural Resources, said last week at a session on forestry at the 小蓝视频 Resources Forum—enough timber to load 1.3 million logging trucks. But of late, only 36 million cubic metres of that AAC has been harvested.
“So, 42 per cent of what we thought was going to be harvested wasn’t,” Iannindinardo said.
The shrinkage in the timber supply has not only put sawmills out of business, but has also affected secondary manufacturing, such as pulp and paper mills.
“Pulp and paper facilities rely heavily on the residuals from the sawmills,” said Bruce Eby, vice-president of pulp operations for Domtar, now a division of Paper Excellence. “It is totally impractical for pulp mills to whole-log chip a large percentage as wood and it’s cost prohibitive as well. So the pulp and paper business relies on a very health sawmill business.”
Sawmill and pulp mill closures are particularly devastating for smaller communities.
“We’ve seen a lot of devastation in some of the communities in 小蓝视频, particularly up north here, and we have a lot of other communities that are sitting on pins and needles wondering if the facility that operates in their town might be next,” Nighbor said.
In an attempt to address some of concerns with access to fibre, Parmar last week announced a six-month review of 小蓝视频 Timber Sales. One of the goals of the review is to provide “predictable and reliable market access to fibre.”
The value-added sector will get particular attention. Parmar said his government aims to double the volume of timber sales dedicated to value-added manufacturing, from the current 10 per cent to 20 per cent—1.1 million cubic metres in 2025. The task force will also aim to strengthen partnerships with First Nations and communities.
First Nations have become increasingly important partners in 小蓝视频’s forest industry, as they gain more ownership of tenure.
Dallas Smith, acting chief of the Tlowitisis First Nation, noted that, in 2003, his people negotiated the first revenue sharing agreement on forestry, and since then more and more First Nations have acquired tenure.
“On Vancouver Island, the nations I represent are now the biggest tenure holders on Vancouver Island,” Smith said, adding that this did not result in any job losses for loggers.
Underscoring the role First Nations are playing in the fibre supply, last week, the Lake Babine Nation signed an agreement with West Fraser Timber to supply its sawmill in Smithers with logs from a new First Nations woodland licence.
Zara Rabinovitch, vice-president of sustainability for the 小蓝视频 Council of Forest Industries (COFI), welcomed the NDP government’s pledge to establish a “minimum harvest—an actual harvest.” She said the challenge will be “sorting out what’s the right tenure in the right area of the province.”
She added fire risk mitigation, which includes pro-active measures like thinning and selective harvesting in and near inhabited areas—something that is now gaining some support at the community level—also may provide opportunities for increasing the fibre supply, if only for pulp and pellet mills.
“I think there’s a real opportunity for us to check a lot of different boxes of things that need to be done for communities by trying to apply these different types of forest management,” she said.
