B.C. Premier David Eby and his forestry minister were in Prince George on Friday, where they sought to assure the province’s forest industry as trade tensions with the U.S. ratchet up.
Canadian forestry was spared in President Donald Trump’s latest round of tariffs, but softwood lumber could still see duties surge as the U.S. launches what it calls a “national security investigation” into Canada’s timber practices.
B.C. premier in Prince George showing support for softwood lumber industry
Speaking at the Council of Forest Industries on Friday, Eby and Forests Minister Ravi Parmar pledged to increase the industry’s access to wood fibre and to protect jobs.
“Premier Eby and our government have thrown the full weight of British Columbia in the rink to protect B.C. jobs, our sector and its workers that’s why one of the first actions I took as minister of forests I brought together a softwood lumber advisory council to protect workers form unfair duties and to develop solutions to provide support and mitigate the impacts during these unprecedented times,” Parmar told delegates.
3 reasons B.C. premier is ‘anxious’ about softwood lumber industry
A major part of that program is an overhaul to BC Timber Sales, a government agency that manages a fifth of B.C.’s allowable annual cut on Crown land.
Get breaking National news
For news impacting Canada and around the world, sign up for breaking news alerts delivered directly to you when they happen.
Eby said the agency is being retooled to better connect raw inputs, workers and mills.
BC Timber Sales will also be involved in expanding the province’s “working forest base” to 45 million cubic metres, a figure the industry says “allows sustainable forest jobs into the future,” Eby added.
“To make sure we are accessing fibre through better management of our forests, through commercial thinning, through addressing wildfire areas and clearing fuel out of the forests,” Eby said.
New duties strain B.C.’s lumber industry
“That also helps pulp mills and maybe it helps jobs.”
It’s a move that has conservationists concerned.
Michelle Connolly with Conservation North alleged the province is using the cover of “so-called wildfire resilience” to open parks and old-growth forests to expanded logging.
Canada’s auto sector feels immediate impact of Trump tariffs
“Minister Parmar promoted the notion that all natural forests including old growth require logging in order to be resilient, which is one of the most Orwellian, clown-world statements one could make about natural forests and nature,” she said.
“The overwhelming driver of fires is climate change, and given that industrial logging is the third highest emitter in B.C. after oil and gas and transformation, you’d think this would have come up … but it did not.”
Along with the changes to BC Timber Sales, the province has unveiled a $10 million diversification fund aimed at finding new markets to sell forestry products, along with measures to fast-track the breakdown of interprovincial trade barriers.
© 2025 Global News, a division of Corus Entertainment Inc.
