The fires that ripped through Los Angeles last month destroyed at least 16,000 structures and many of those homes and office buildings will require wood or wood products to rebuild.
In previous years, a hurricane, tornado or other large-scale disaster would bring a spike in sales to softwood lumber producers in British Columbia.
The United States market that for decades has been the bread-and-butter business driver of the West Fraser/Canfor lumber giants of the province will become a lot less certain if President Donald Trump follows through on his threat to impose a 25 per cent tariff on exports of most things, including lumber, from Canada to the U.S.
After first saying the tariffs would take effect Tuesday, Feb. 4, Trump put them on hold Monday, Feb. 3.
“People kind of hoped that he would recognize that this wasn’t a good decision for Americans either, it’s going to increase the cost of housing for Americans,” said Kim Haakstad, chief executive officer of BC Council of Forest Industries,
“I can’t help but think some of them are actually struggling financially but where there’s significant rebuilding that has to happen in California and that will increase the cost of housing.
“We’ve got housing problems across all across North America, it’s not a Canadian or British Columbia issue only. They’re not just building the building with wood, they’re using wood finishings, they’re using wood products in homes and that (tariff) would make it more expensive. We need housing in North America, not barriers to construction and in increased costs in housing. Whether they’re wood-framed or not, they need wood.”
Haakstad said Prince George, with its pulpmills and sawmills and thousands of workers connected to the forest industry would be one of the hardest hit communities in the province if the tariff is applied after the 30-day pause Trump announced on Monday.
The lack of economic fibre available to the mills has left loggers unable to reach the annual allowable cut harvesting allotment and that’s left mills vulnerable to curtailments and permanent closures that have already cost the province hundreds of jobs and the majority of those lost positions were in north central B.C.
“We can’t help but be concerned for the impact in communities like Prince George and the smaller communities surrounding Prince George and as a forest industry there’s the threat of future job losses and any closures or curtailments and we’re super-worried about those impacts,” said Haakstad.
“We need to think how we can strengthen our industry and diversify our markets for the longer term, there are things we can do domestically,” she said. “We can really work hard to make sure that we are using wood products manufactured in Canada for all the hopes we need to build.as many hopes as possible to address our housing crisis.
“We can continue to work with governments to make sure building codes are properly aligned in international markets in order to take our products.”
Softwood lumber exports from BC to the United States have steadily declined over the past three years.
In 2024 the province sent 4.134 billion board feet (9.76 million cubic-metres) worth $3.138 billion US, down from 4.334 billion board feet (10.22 million cubic-metres) in 2023 that sold for $3.190 billion.
In the past 10 years, 2016 was the most productive export year for BC forest companies. They exported 7.077 billion board feet (18.17 million cubic-metres) worth $3.896 billion.
Haakstad, who took over her COFI position last week from the retired Linda Coady, said Trump’s threat has far-reaching implications that would be crippling to many Canadian businesses, not just those in the forest industry.
“This is a blanket tariff, so it affects more than just the softwood lumber industry, it hits the whole industry hard and manufacturers who are maybe more diversified and make other products and it will hit other lines of their business,’ said Haakstad.
“That’s where we would really see significant impacts on workers and communities if we can’t find a way to reduce the impacts of the tariffs or for President Trump to make it short-lived.”
