A leading forestry organization has welcomed B.C.'s responses to American tariffs, but questioned aspects of the provincial budget tabled Tuesday. B.C.'s forests minister, meanwhile, is calling on Ottawa to step up supports.
Kim Haakstad, president and chief executive officer of the B.C. Council of Forest Industries, said in a statement that her organization welcomes the budget's focus on responding to new tariffs announced Tuesday (March 4).
"We are disappointed by the absence of dedicated support for the forest sector," Haakstad said. "As Premier (David) Eby and (Forests) Minister (Ravi) Parmar have acknowledged, the forest sector will be particularly hard hit by the new tariffs at a time when the industry is already facing significant challenges. These broad-based tariffs apply to all forest product exports 鈥� including pulp, paper, packaging, engineered wood, and mass timber 鈥� adding further pressure on workers, companies and communities already affected by softwood lumber duties."
Haakstad acknowledged that challenges facing provincial forestry escape easy solutions."(But) ensuring predictable access to sustainable and economic fibre is critical to maintaining jobs and supporting operations across the province," she added. "COFI is concerned that Budget 2025 doesn鈥檛 plan to meet the government鈥檚 commitment to harvest 45 million cubic metres, as outlined in the government鈥檚 election platform and (Parmar's mandate letter)," she said.
She specifically pointed to the section of the budget spelling out "material assumptions" about revenues. It foresees harvests of 30, 30 and 29 million cubic metres for the next three years starting in 2025-26. These figures amount to half of the allowable annual cut of 60 million cubic metres.
"Increasing the actual harvest to 45 million cubic metres would not only stop further job losses, but create the conditions to add jobs and generate hundreds of millions in additional tax revenue and stumpage fees," she said.
Haakstad said her organization supports efforts to streamline permit and regulatory processes for major projects and other sectors like housing and mining.
"A similar approach needs to be applied urgently to the primary forest sector and include metrics to allow industry and government to measure success," she added. "This should include an accounting of the time it takes from the moment a permit process is started until a decision is made."
Haakstad added her organization remains committed to working with the government to advance practical solutions that strengthen the forestry sector, improve the provincial economy and diversify markets.
Haakstad's appeal comes as the forestry sector prepares for tariffs in excess of 50 per cent, factoring in existing duties. Various experts have predicted that the forestry sector would be among the most hard-hit industries and Parmar Wednesday used social media to make the case for additional aide from Ottawa.
"We鈥檙e stepping up to support workers 鈥� but Ottawa must do the same," he said. "We need the federal government to stand with B.C.鈥檚 forest industry and ensure supports are in place."
Premier David Eby Tuesday said the federal government has committed that revenues from retaliatory tariffs announced Tuesday morning would be redistributed to businesses and individuals to provide that support.
"We'll make sure that that happens," he said. "(As) a province, we'll fill in the blanks. Wherever there's an area of concern that we have that isn't being addressed by the federal government, we'll make sure that we're there."
B.C.'s Finance Minister Brenda Bailey Tuesday could not offer any details about how much money stands to get from Ottawa to help tariffs, but noted that B.C. has budgeted $4 billion for each of the next three years.
"That (support from Ottawa) is certainly not the only response," she said, pointing to the removal of all 'red-state' liquor from the shelves of government-owned liquor stores and new government procurement rules favouring Canadian and B.C. products and services. She added that the budget also includes non-monetary responses to the tariffs. They include the fast-tracking of 18 resource projects.
Bailey said these projects are "essentially non-monetary responses" because they keep people working and drive economic growth. "That's work ahead of us," she said. "Those 18 (projects) are just us getting started."
