A record has fallen and a reputation crumbled. Canada with British Columbia leading the way is no longer North America’s leading producer of softwood lumber. The title has passed to the forest product companies operating in the southern pine regions of the U.S., according to Fastmarkets, a commodity pricing agency.

The news comes as no surprise. Despite holding the title for decades, Canada’s softwood lumber production has been in steady decline. In B.C., the country’s largest producer, softwood lumber manufacturers have faced a constant barrage of issues which collectively have taken their toll.

The U.S. has played consistent havoc with industry profitability with its insistence that the Canadian softwood lumber industry is unfairly subsidized. B.C.’s forests have been ravaged by insect infestations, wildfires of epic proportion and damage—and a steady chiselling away of the land base available to log harvesting companies.

Add in high operating and labour costs and increasing government bureaucracy and restrictions, and it’s surprising B.C. hasn’t slipped below Panama in lumber production.

Re-enter Donald Trump, still U.S. president elect at the time of writing. His opening salvo was notice of tariffs up to 25 per cent on a range of goods entering the U.S., including softwood lumber. It was an adroit move, intentionally or not. It had Canada and Mexico scuttling around tightening border security measures with the U.S. Trump ties immigration and security measures with trade issues. In the latter category, he gleefully admits “tariffs” to be his favourite word.

Instead of keeping their powder dry, some provinces chose to declare how they would react to Trump’s 25 per cent threat. But all agreed with B.C. Premier David Eby who declared such a tariff imposed on softwood lumber as “devastating”.

The U.S. Department of Commerce was set to examine the present duties the U.S. imposes on Canadian softwood lumber imports. They vary depending on the forest company but average around 14.5 per cent.

Where the threatened tariffs fit is unclear. The irony is, Trump’s cudgel approach to trade and international relations is counter-productive for most Americans. His brand of protectionism increases costs in the U.S. and risks re-igniting inflation. Organizations like the B.C. Council of Forest Industries have been hammering away on the issue for years.

Trump was sounding his 25 per cent war cry around the same time the B.C. forest industry received more by now familiar negative news. Tolko Industries announced it was temporarily curtailing production at six of its sawmill operations in the B.C. Interior. The December shutdowns are bad news for employees and the communities where they live.

The usual suspects were fingered for Tolko’s decision: high fibre costs and weak North American markets for lumber and plywood production. “The B.C. policy and regulatory burden causing high costs and limiting access to available economic fibre for our B.C. manufacturing facilities continues to impact our B.C. footprint,” added Tolko spokesman Chris Downey.

Ravi Parmar was sworn in this past November as B.C.’s new Forests Minister in Premier Eby’s NDP government. Parmar is the MLA for Langford-Highlands on southern Vancouver Island. He has worked briefly for the B.C. Ministry of Forests. The new minster was making some encouraging noises about his attitude toward his first portfolio.  Now is the time to be bold, he told a questioner in December. He said the frameworks, vision statements and grandiose plans are in the past.

“For me it’s now (about) focusing on those clear objectives on what we need to accomplish to have a robust, sustainable industry for the next decades.”

The NDP has entered a cooperative agreement with the BC Green Party to help shore up its narrow majority in Victoria. Some forest industry observers were hopeful Parmar would use a public appearance scheduled for January to expand on his plans for the forest industry in B.C. But the opportunity appears limited. The B.C. Natural Resources Forum in Prince George at which Parmar was scheduled to attend has grown to become the largest event of its kind, attracting up to 1,400 delegates annually drawn from a wide geographic area. Twenty-two years ago, when the inaugural forum was held, forestry was the region’s dominant natural resource industry, a fact reflected in the forum’s agenda. In 2025, though, forestry was allotted 50 minutes in the three-day Natural Resources Forum program. Parmar was scheduled to appear at a breakfast event along with a clutch of his ministerial colleagues from Victoria.

It appears to be an unlikely opportunity to announce a major shift in B.C. forest industry policy.

In January, the BC Council of Forest Industries (COFI) announced another sign of the changing times. COFI’s quality control services, including the use of COFI and Interior Lumber Manufacturers’ Association (ILMA) grade stamps along with COFI’s quality control staff, will be transferred to the Canadian Mill Services Association (CMSA).

The transfer has been designed to be as seamless as possible. The two organizations explained in a statement: “To ensure that our members continue to receive the greatest value for service, it was determined by the boards of both COFI and CMSA that a merger of quality control operations would create the most sustainable structure as changes in the industry continue to unfold.”

Further details of the change and its implications are available through COFI (www.cofi.org) and the CMSA (www.canserve.org).