Recent incidents in BC’s forest industry, in which trees being felled have contacted energized transmission lines, have led to the creation of some new documents by BC Hydro. These new documents support discussions with forest companies/ harvesting contractors to ensure obligations to identify the hazardous areas associated with harvesting near powerlines are addressed. One of these documents, The Logging Near Powerlines Emergency Contact Form, focuses on strict compliance with current WorkSafeBC (WSBC) Regulations. …Electricity seeks the path of least resistance to the ground. That path could include a tree, mobile equipment, tools, or the human body. …Health and safety in forestry workplaces is the responsibility of all parties that have an influence on how work is carried out. …Where possible as part of the initial planning process ensure that cut block boundaries are well away from the powerline corridor.
Both B.C.’s attorney general and lawyers for the Cowichan Nation welcomed the Supreme Court of Canada’s decision not to hear a case out of New Brunswick on First Nations’ ownership claims of private industrial forest land. It comes as the BC government and Cowichan Nation pursue appeals after a contentious BC Supreme Court ruling that recognizes that the Cowichan Nation’s Aboriginal title extends to privately-owned property in the Richmond area. …BC Attorney General Niki Sharma said that the decision not to hear that case bodes well for the province’s appeal in the Cowichan case. The Crown-Indigenous Relations Department said the Wolastoqey decision allowed by the Supreme Court of Canada to stand was an important ruling, adding that “private property rights are fundamental.” …Richmond Mayor Malcolm Brodie hopes the rejection of the Wolastoqey Nation’s leave application “is a signal of the current thought process of the Supreme Court of Canada.”
– The Trump administration’s trade agency said on Wednesday it will kick off the first of three negotiating rounds with Mexico this week to revamp the North American trade agreement, but made no mention of any talks with Canada. The U.S. Trade Representative’s office said in a statement that Deputy U.S. Trade Representative Jeffrey Goettman will lead bilateral talks in Mexico City on Thursday and Friday focused on “economic security and rules of origin for key industrial goods.” USTR Jamieson Greer stayed in Washington to attend a White House cabinet meeting on Thursday. USTR said the U.S. and Mexico will hold a second round of negotiations in Washington June 16 to 17, focused on agriculture and “a level playing field,” with a third set of talks in Mexico City scheduled for the week of July 20. …But USTR’s statement made no mention of bilateral talks with Canada.
The Trump administration intends to maintain tariffs on imports from Mexico and Canada, US Trade Representative Jamieson Greer said as the US launches negotiations to revamp the North American free trade pact. The US has “significant” trade issues with Canada. …”The US is going to have tariffs,” Greer said. “I mean, even with somebody like Mexico, or other countries that are in our own hemisphere, we’re going to have tariffs as long as we have a giant trade deficit.” His comments that the 6-year-old US-Mexico-Canada Agreement will not continue as a tariff-free trade pact echo comments he made privately last month to industry executives in Mexico — that auto and steel tariffs will remain in place under the revamped USMCA. …Greer said the Trump administration’s issues with Canada go well beyond trade “irritants” and it was difficult to see how the two can work out their differences.
OTTAWA – A small group of cities across the country drove Canada’s progress on diversifying trade in 2025, while others fell behind, says a new report from the Canadian Chamber of Commerce. The report says Calgary, Ottawa-Gatineau, Toronto, Saskatoon and Kelowna, B.C., are the cities that made the strongest gains in export diversification beyond the U.S. market last year. Of the cities surveyed, Calgary and Ottawa-Gatineau posted the largest increases in exports to non-U.S. markets between 2024 and 2025 — 64.67 per cent and 64.04 per cent, respectively. … The chamber’s new report says recent Statistics Canada data on business responses to U.S. tariffs suggests many Canadian firms are “adapting cautiously” rather than fundamentally repositioning their operations. The report says that while exports to non-U.S. markets rose sharply between 2024 and 2025, much of that growth came from existing exporters expanding their reach rather than new firms entering global markets. 
FORT ST. JOHN, B.C. — The sale of a former sawmill owned by industry giant Canfor in Fort St. John could be happening very soon. According to a news tip received by Energeticcity.ca, a purchase by a salvage company based in the province’s interior was “99 per cent complete” with the new ownership possessing the property and hourly employees would have their last shift on Friday, May 29th, at midnight. The sawmill at 9312 259 Road was announced as closing in 2024, following a “systematic, orderly wind-down process” affecting 220 jobs. However, when approached by Energeticcity.ca, media relations representative of Canfor, Mina Laudan, said that no sale has been finalized as of yet.
SAULT STE. MARIE — The Ontario government is investing more than $14 million to build a modern, digital system to inventory the province’s forest resources, giving industry access to better information to invest, grow and create jobs. …this investment will modernize the Forest Resources Inventory (FRI) Information Management System, the essential database of Ontario’s managed forests, by replacing outdated systems with cutting-edge technology to make critical forest data more accurate, accessible and easier to use. …Through a strategic partnership with Microsoft, powered by Databricks technology, the province is developing customized digital tools to modernize how Ontario collects, stores and shares forest inventory information, strengthening the sector’s long-term competitiveness and resilience in the global economy. This work is a key commitment in the 
Rising mortgage rates aren’t the only thing freezing the housing market. Builders are contending with a fresh wave of sticker shock on the job site, as soaring prices for copper, lumber, diesel and aluminum drive up the cost of putting homes in the ground. A mix of geopolitical turmoil, tariffs and supply-chain disruptions is rippling through construction materials markets at a moment when affordability is already stretched thin, the Wall Street Journal reported. The result is higher costs for developers, more uncertainty for homebuilders and even fewer paths to affordable homeownership. Copper has become one of the industry’s biggest headaches. …Lumber prices are climbing again, too. Canadian sawmill closures and tariffs tied to the long-running U.S.-Canada softwood dispute have tightened supply heading into peak building season. …The broader concern for developers is that construction inflation could become self-reinforcing. Higher material costs feed broader inflation fears, which in turn keep borrowing costs elevated. 
B.C.’s housing market remained tepid into April as sales pointing to another disappointing spring market. Seasonally adjusted home sales decreased by 1.1 per cent in April to 5,227 units after a 0.5 per cent drop in March. This was also the lowest monthly figure since November 2023. …Weak housing market conditions are likely to progress in the near term given the shaky geopolitical climate, sluggish economic growth and weak labour market conditions. …On the manufacturing front, sales in B.C. rose marginally in March. …Wood product manufacturing also declined for the third consecutive month, falling 2.4 per cent to $728 million. This represents the lowest level since May 2020, when sales were $623 million. Year to date, durable goods sales are up 2.6 per cent.
OTTAWA, ON
OTTAWA, ON
British Columbia’s forests support a diversity of trees, plants, fungi and wildlife, while also providing recreational opportunities, cultural values, and economic benefits to communities. As we recognized the International Day for Biological Diversity on May 22 and Wildfire Awareness Month throughout May, it’s an important time to reflect on the connection between healthy forests, resilient ecosystems, and the communities and wildlife that depend on them. Wildfire resilience and biodiversity are deeply connected. Thoughtful forest management activities, including strategic fuel reduction treatments and cultural and prescribed burning, can help reduce wildfire risk while also creating healthier and more diverse forest ecosystems for generations to come. …Today, FESBC is investing in treatments that reduce wildfire risk around communities, infrastructure and other resources. We are supporting the return of cultural and prescribed burning to the landscape. We are asking questions about how wildfire risk reduction treatments can also support biodiversity and other forest values, such as recreation.
Experts are calling on the B.C. government to halt logging in a Tsitika watershed cutblock on northern Vancouver Island that has been designated for old-growth deferral. But the some First Nations whose territory it falls in say they have their own approach to managing the area sustainably. Pacific Wild, an environmental organization, says B.C. Timber Sales (BCTS) is selling off rare and ecologically significant forests for minimal economic return. In letters sent to BCTS and other government decision-makers in April, the organization presented new data, maps and field evidence showing that cutblock TA1375 — identified by the Old Growth Technical Advisory Panel as a Priority Deferral Area — provides essential habitat for threatened species and stores significant amounts of carbon. The cutblock was auctioned in March despite opposition from scientists, community members and many First Nations whose territories overlap with the Tsitika watershed.
Residents and visitors to Cowichan Bay on Saturday, May 30 take note. A large-scale exercise to help emergency responders train for potential wildfires is taking place in Cowichan Bay from 8 a.m. to 5 p.m. “Please do not be alarmed and help ensure crews can safely complete their training by obeying signage and giving personnel and equipment plenty of space,” said CVRD spokesperson Lisa Moilanen. The exercise will include Shawnigan Lake, Malahat, Mill Bay, Cowichan Bay, Duncan, Sahtlam, Ladysmith, and North Oyster fire departments, as well as BC Wildfire Services and more “working, practicing and learning together to help be aligned, prepared and keep our communities safe,” Moilanen added. The exercise features a scenario where a forest fire is threatening a developed area or community. Moilanen said people will notice emergency vehicles, personnel, traffic cones, and wildfire response activities around Falcon Crescent, and Wilmot, Galdwell, Rondeault, and Hillbank Roads.
Three years ago, Barb Round heard heavy machinery chewing through the urban forest behind her home in Campbell River, a small city on east Vancouver Island that bills itself as the salmon capital of the world. Round waved down a man in a hard hat and asked why the excavator was working in the greenway, which is a haven for birds, dotted with pocket wetlands and adjacent to Simms Creek, home to four salmon species. “He explained to me that the property had been sold,” Round, a retired nurse, tells The Tyee. “Everyone in the neighbourhood thought it was protected land.” When residents found out a local developer planned to cut down much of the forest and fill in the wetlands to build a large housing development near the creek, “they were gobsmacked,” Round says.
It will soon be mandatory for commercial trucks in B.C. to have dash cameras. B.C. Conservative MLA Ward Stamer introduced a bill after a string of deadly collisions on Highway 5, which goes through his riding of Kamloops-North Thompson. British Columbia is the first Canadian jurisdiction to require commercial dash cameras. Stamer says cameras will help keep drivers accountable and ensure there will be enough evidence in the event of a crash. The bill requires outward-facing dash cameras on commercial trucks travelling B.C. highways and will come into force six months after receiving royal assent. “This bill started with families along Highway 5 who have buried loved ones after preventable crashes. It finishes with B.C. leading the country on commercial vehicle safety,” said Stamer in a release.
