Trump's tariff war could collapse B.C.'s struggling forest industry
Conservationists and community-based businesses look to reset how forests are managed as crises pile up
One year ago, the Plateau sawmill was the largest single employer in Vanderhoof, a community of 4,500 people about an hour's drive west of Prince George that bills itself as the geographic centre of B.C.
Today, its lumber yard sits empty — one of dozens of mill closures and curtailments around the province that have sent hundreds of people who had held long-term union jobs seeking employment elsewhere.
Those sorts of losses keep Coun. Brian Frenkel up at night, especially as the industry prepares for another hit in the form of U.S. tariffs set to come into effect this week.
"Our community, and in communities like us, and our industries have to look at saying, 'OK, where are the other markets in the world?' We're almost in a do-over."
Seeking new opportunities amid cascading crises will be a key theme this week as political and industry leaders meet in Prince George for the annual B.C. Council of Forest Industries convention.
The theme of this year's event is "strategies for competitiveness and sustainability," and panels focused on navigating global markets and what the future of trade might look like, with U.S. tariffs on the horizon.
An industry in crisis
The answer isn't obvious: the United States has long been the single largest market for B.C. lumber exports, representing over half the market for the approximately $10 billion industry.
Despite efforts to diversify dating back two decades, the natural flow of trade, driven by construction demands, has been for forestry products in Canada to go to the United States, with many mills built around the needs of that country.
But increasingly, the major players in the industry are scaling back operations in Canada and opening up new mills in the United States. That includes B.C.-based companies like Canfor, which shut down its operations in Vanderhoof but at the same time has expanded in Arkansas, citing access to a "high-quality, globally competitive timber supply."
At the same time, the B.C. industry has been beset by significant challenges: the mountain pine beetle, which killed off vast swaths of harvestable trees, wildfires and the ongoing softwood lumber dispute, which has seen the United States impose duties on Canadian exports outside of the current tariff conflict.
But the tariffs could be the final nail in the coffin for many if new opportunities aren't found.
John Brink is a Prince George-based businessman whose companies manufacture finger joints, used to link pieces of wood together, using unused lumber discarded by other mills.
The main market for his products is the United States, but, he says, once 25 per cent tariffs come into effect, he's not sure the business will be viable, making him visibly emotional.
"A lot of people will get hurt, losing their jobs, losing their businesses," he said. "It's not viable."
Reducing reliance on United States
Large Canadian flags fly over Brink's manufacturing site in Prince George, which is built along the edge of the Nechako River as it flows towards the Fraser. In previous centuries, logs were transported along the river to support B.C.'s nascent forest industry.
Brink came to Canada from the Netherlands in his 20s, settling in Prince George amid a boom in the lumber industry that saw it and surrounding communities rapidly grow through the 1950s and 60s.
Canadians, he says, were his heroes, thanks to their role in liberating his hometown from German occupation when he was just five years old.
"I hear the president of the United States talking about Canada like it's just another state," he said, referring to U.S. President Donald Trump's continued habit of referring to Canada as if it were a territory of the United States. "No respect. That bothers me."
Many in the industry have long anticipated some downturn in forestry. After the mountain pine beetle swept the province in the 1990s and early 2000s, the annual allowable harvest was significantly ramped up so wood could be used before it was no longer viable.
That era has come to an end, and now B.C. is seeking to transform its forest industry into something more sustainable, though what that will look like — especially with limited access to its largest customer — is unclear.
New opportunities
But for some, the crisis represents an opportunity to completely rethink a system that has largely been built around cutting down B.C. forests that also provide important wildlife habitat and recreational opportunities.
Cameron Beck of the environmental group Conservation North says now is the time to start a new economy that is more sustainable — and significantly less reliant on leaving large chunks of clearcut around the province.
"We are destroying the habitat for mountain caribou, grizzly, wolverine, fisher," he said. "We know we're driving those animals into extinction... what kind of impact is that going to have on our future, on the future health of our planet and ourselves?"
He wants the government to focus on retraining workers and building new industries rather than relying on the old way of doing things.
"We have to do it at some point anyway," he said. "Maybe we should more quickly get on [with it]."
Frenkel says he doesn't see a future without forestry, but he agrees that better management is needed so that environmental concerns and jobs can coexist, with First Nations and local communities playing a key role.
"It's about what our values are," he said. "You have to be optimistic."
Brink also sees an opportunity. He's hoping that the Canadian government will use the money collected from tariffs imposed on U.S. goods to distribute it to small- and medium-sized companies, like his, to create new opportunities.
He already has a vision of buying mills abandoned by Canfor and transforming them from a multinational, profit-driven enterprise to smaller, community-based businesses that make value-added wood products rather than simply raw lumber.
"Not just sending it to China and they send it back to us as furniture. We should do so much more here," he says. "That's where the opportunities are. That's where the future is."
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