Stuart Muir
Six weeks before Northwood, on June 3, the Canadian Forest Sector Transformation Task Force—a panel appointed by the Government of Canada, not an industry lobby—released its final report. Its verdict was not the one the political class in Victoria has spent a decade rehearsing. The crisis, the task force concluded, is not primarily the product of tariffs, markets or natural disaster. In its own words, “the most fundamental challenges facing the forest sector are homegrown: lack of access to cost-competitive fibre, underinvestment, inadequate domestic construction … a crisis of confidence by our workforce and the communities in which we operate.”
…Here is where I land, and where the task force lands with me: this is a policy-made crisis, which means it has a policy solution. Three conditions, and none of them require a single British Columbian to choose between a healthy forest and a working one. First, stabilize fibre with long-term commitments tied to specific mills—the task force recommends a shift toward area-based tenure on leases of twenty-five years or longer. …Second, work with Ottawa on single-window approvals that recognize provincial equivalency: one application, one decision, one set of conditions. …Third, increase active management—more harvesting, more thinning, more silviculture—not as a favour to industry but as the most effective wildfire policy available to us, and the only way to rebuild the fibre base. The province controls the land, the tenure, the rules and the permits. It also means the province owns the results—the $17.4 billion, the hundred thousand jobs, the eight million hectares, and now the shuttered gates at Northwood. Ottawa has finally said the word out loud. Homegrown. The only question left is whether Victoria will admit it grew this, too, and start growing something better.
Alberta’s forestry sector enters a second half of 2026 with cautious optimism, even as weak housing markets supply, U.S. tariffs and softwood lumber duties continue to weigh on the industry. Ken Greenway, Alberta Forestry and Parks’ executive director of strategy, policy and economics, said northern Alberta’s timber industry remains relatively stable compared to some other parts of Canada, where forestry communities have faced sharper contractions. “We haven’t seen huge disruptions,” Greenway said. “Pulp is a weak market and that’s an area of concern, but softwood products prices are slowly moving to the positive side.” …“It’s a cyclical market, we’re at the bottom of a cycle at the moment. The current contraction across Canada – we have not seen as much in Alberta. We hope to withstand this storm.” The industry is also becoming more involved in wildfire mitigation.
Western Forest Products says a curtailment at its Cowichan Bay sawmill is expected to last until this fall. The curtailment began on May 11, affecting 54 employees. On Wednesday, WFP told CHEK News it currently expects the curtailment to remain in effect through September. The forestry company says the curtailment is due to “persistently weak market conditions” and that it is trying to mitigate impacts on employees by “providing work opportunities at our other operations where possible.” “Conditions are being monitored closely, and we will keep employees informed should the expected duration change,” said Western Forest Products. The curtailment in Cowichan Bay comes as an indefinite curtailment continues at the WFP sawmill in Chemainus. The Chemainus sawmill was curtailed in July 2025, affecting approximately 120 workers, and in January it was announced that the curtailment was expected to last for all of 2026. [END]
The Canadian lumber industry saw enormous price spikes during the pandemic years of 2020-2022, with costs close to triple what they are today for some products. … “We saw prices skyrocket during COVID, but so too did the cost to operate,” said Aspen Dudzic, the Alberta Forest Products Assocation’s communications director. “And interestingly, post-COVID, we saw the market prices for lumber go down, but the costs to operate have not come down in the same way.” Even though lumber costs have seen a huge drop in prices in a vacuum, why haven’t these cost savings been passed on to the consumer? …“The supply chain is really complex,” Dudzic said. “Nothing we do operates in a vacuum, so there’s a lot of other compounding costs that we have to look at, like inflationary pressures, upticks in fuel and energy prices. …Top of mind is the ongoing trade war with the US.
SURREY, British Columbia — The Honourable Randeep Sarai, Secretary of State (International Development) announced over $8 million in RTRI funding for four Surrey businesses to help them diversify exports, grow locally, and compete globally – building prosperity for British Columbians and all Canadians. These investments support the Government of Canada’s measures to help businesses in sectors affected by global trade disruptions – such as forestry, manufacturing, and steel and aluminum – boost productivity, reduce costs, build more resilient supply chains, and reach new markets. … More details about these 
British Columbia is expanding the BC Timber Sales Value-Added Manufacturing Program by creating a new dedicated category that will secure fibre for custom cutters and processors. BC’s action builds on Canada’s Forest Sector Transformation Task Force, which was commissioned in response to U.S. President Donald Trump’s new duties and tariffs on Canadian wood products. The task force recommends strong support for value-added operators so Canada can build high-quality products at home. “British Columbia’s path forward for forestry can’t just be providing dimensional lumber to Americans. We have to make more in B.C.,” said Ravi Parmar, Minister of Forests. …Custom cutters and processors are a group within the value-added wood-manufacturing sector without their own sawmilling facilities. …BC Wood Specialties Group Association’s chair, Kelly Marconi said “our custom cutting and processing members were part of the task force’s public consultation, so we are pleased to see this inclusive change.”
…As some resource roads across the province fall into disrepair … outdoor groups are working to save them. 
Open letter to Premier David Eby, B.C.’s Minister of Forests, Ravi Parmar, spoke in Revelstoke about his hopes for sawmills, old- growth and caribou protection (recently). It is evident Parmar is misinformed about the issues critical to the Revelstoke community and other British Columbia residents, and is failing to act on your government’s commitments to climate action, environmental protection, and sustainability. When asked about protecting old-growth within the Revelstoke region, such as the Rainbow-Jordan Wilderness (RJW), Parmar stated: “What I wouldn’t support is just saving land for the sake of saving land and seeing mills close down.” That response demonstrated a lack of understanding of community priorities. …The minister’s comments also show a lack of understanding of the Old Growth Strategic Review, which your government commissioned and committed to implementing. Rather than perpetuating the volume-based resource extraction model, a shift to a value-added sustainable forestry is needed for the provincial economy and long-term employment opportunities.
Mayor Scott Gillingham announced today he will bring forward a proposal to City Council next week to maintain full funding for tree planting in the 2026 Urban Forest Renewal Program. The move follows public feedback about a proposed budget amendment that would have reduced 2026 tree planting work by $1.236 million to offset a provincial government change to the City’s Strategic Infrastructure Basket funding allocation. “Winnipeggers care deeply about our urban forest, and I’ve heard that clearly,” said Mayor Scott Gillingham. “The public wants this tree planting funding protected. I agree, and I’ll be bringing forward a plan to Council next week to do exactly that.” City Council adopted Winnipeg’s first Urban Forest Strategy in 2023, setting a long-term plan to protect, preserve, and grow the city’s tree canopy.
ALBERTA — Harvesting plans for forestry companies operating in the High Prairie and Slave Lake regions were presented June 17 at a joint open house in High Prairie. Plans were displayed by West Fraser Timber that operates High Prairie Forest Products, Tolko Industries, and by Millar Western Forest Products that bought the Slave Lake Pulp Mill from West Fraser and became the owner in April 2024. No representative was present from West Fraser. Companies hosted the event to allow citizens to comment on the proposed plans. Tolko plans to have operations in the Sweathouse area south of Snipe Lake, Salt Prairie and Whitemud, says woodlands supervisor Callie Skellett. …Millar Western plans to harvest trees in three areas, forestry superintendent Stuart Adkins says.
BC’s wildfire emissions in 2023 exceeded those of seven of the world’s ten largest national emitters. …At the same time, provincial policy has systematically reduced the managed forest harvest and shuttered 21 mills since 2023. …The policy of locking forests away from active management—while presented as environmental protection—is contributing to the very climate outcome it claims to prevent. Decadent, unmanaged stands are the fuel that feeds catastrophic wildfire. A well-managed, productive forest economy would reduce Canada’s climate impact more than any policy of exclusion. …The argument for locking forests away from harvest assumes that standing forests are always a carbon sink—absorbing more CO₂ than they release. This is true for young, actively growing forests. It is not true for old, decadent stands. …The solution is not less forestry. It is more forestry—done well, done sustainably, and done with the explicit goal of reducing Canada’s greenhouse gas emissions: uncontrolled wildfire in unmanaged forests.
Smoke from two major wildfires burning in British Columbia’s Fraser Canyon is leading to air quality warnings across parts of the province, with an emergency physician warning the health effects extend far beyond watery eyes and a scratchy throat. “It is considered to be one of the biggest public health threats that we face,” said Dr. Courtney Howard, who is also the president-elect of the Canadian Medical Association. … “The particulate matter in smoke that’s less than 2.5 microns can go all the way down into our lungs, and the ultrafine particles can actually cross over into our bloodstream,” she said. …Howard said scientists are only beginning to understand the long-term health effects of repeated wildfire smoke exposure because the research is still limited. “We don’t have good evidence on the long-term outcomes yet,” she said. But a small number of studies, according to Howard, have suggested possible links with high rates of brain cancer and lung cancer.
