On October 12, 2015, the last Softwood Lumber Agreement between Canada and the United States expired. That was nine long years ago. On October 19, 2015, Justin Trudeau’s Liberal government was elected—also nine years ago.

During those nine years, over $9 billion in deposits have been paid by Canadian softwood lumber producers to cover any antidumping duties and countervailing duties that may be owed to the U.S. as a result of the fees they have attached to Canadian softwood lumber exported to the U.S., as the two countries ‘supposedly’ continue to negotiate a new agreement.

Regardless of what incoming President Donald Trump does regarding overall trade and tariffs, that’s still $9 billion of Canada’s forest company income just sitting there … waiting … some of which likely would have been spent to improve existing facilities or build new state-of-the-art sawmills capable of economically processing timber located further afield, a major reason why many sawmills are being closed today and destroying local economies, primarily in rural Canada.

Is it coincidence that we have no new agreement during the entire tenure of the current Liberal government, or is it just a symptom of this government’s penchant toward picking winners and losers within the Canadian economy—and thereby actually fueling the rural/urban divide that is now so obvious, rather than working to unite this country? That’s bad leadership.

All one need do is review the recent results of both the B.C. and Saskatchewan provincial government elections. The stark divide between urban and rural couldn’t be more obvious. Is it any wonder, for example, that folks not living on B.C.’s Coast are now ready to take pitchforks to the Legislature over such important issues as forest management policy? Who knows what will happen to the industry now that the governing NDP has managed to secure a majority government, if past behavior is any indication.

One fact is obvious. Justin Trudeau and the current federal Liberal government has been and continues to be very bad news for the Canadian forest industry despite the fact that the industry could have been a strong cornerstone piece of his often poorly designed environmental program.

But as mentioned earlier, this is the consequence of bad leadership. There is no way that there should not have been a new softwood agreement done or at least punitive tariffs placed on U.S. goods entering from the U.S. equal to the amount on deposit by now, to send a message to our U.S. counterparts. We need to let them know that we will support our industry, as well as follow the judgments in Canada’s favour reached several times at both the World Trade Organization (WTO) and the mechanism to investigate complaints embedded within the overall free trade agreement with the U.S.

But what do we hear from this government? Crickets and sappy press releases feigning outrage every time the Americans change the antidumping and countervailing duties. At present, Canfor is paying 16.58 percent, West Fraser is paying 11.89 percent, J.D. Irving is paying 11.54 percent, Tolko is paying a whopping 17.27 percent and everyone else exporting to the U.S. is paying 14.4 percent.

Putting this file on the back burner, as the Trudeau Liberal government has done, as well as making the oil and gas industry their favorite whipping boy, has had significant consequences to Canadian unity by largely ignoring rural Canada.

One need look no further than what investment into the forest industry can mean to a struggling rural community like Carrot River, Saskatchewan, population 1,000, where B.C.-based Dunkley Lumber has invested $240 million to completely remake the Edgewood Forest Products stud mill (see article on page 10 of this issue).

Dunkley Lumber has created a sawmill masterpiece featuring some of the most interesting and exciting digital and artificial intelligence technologies available today. They have essentially created a stud mill factory, capable of being operated by six sawmill employees per shift compared to 11 per shift before the rebuild occurred. It should be noted that the company still employs the same number of workers, but has added a shift at the planer mill because of the 70 per cent improvement in production.

Not only has this investment secured jobs for the future for the employees, but a new K to 12 school has been built in the community, most of the highways leading into the town have new pavement, and everywhere local businesses are remodeling or at least putting on a fresh coat of paint.

This is what some of that $9 billion could have accomplished in other rural locales across Canada, and ignoring this fact is one reason why the rural/urban divide continues to grow and become even more deeply entrenched.

Talk about the auto industry in Ontario or supply management in Quebec, and this Liberal government are all ears. Talk about a new Softwood Lumber Agreement that could benefit so many more places in rural Canada, and frankly, they have shown that they could care less
because forestry is not on their winners list.