Nearly 28 years after Darcy Kulai was injured at work, the memory and the grief remain strikingly real, affecting him both physically and mentally. Now, he wants to inspire other young workers to stay safe on the job. In 1997, Kulai was 20 years old and working at a sawmill. He had just completed his second year at the University of Victoria. He planned to work through the summer, then transfer to Camosun College, where he was looking forward to an exciting year playing basketball on the college team. Unfortunately, that’s not how the next year played out. On an evening shift, Kulai was stationed at the “stick belt,” a conveyor located in an out-of-the- way area of the mill. …When some sticks became caught in the conveyor belt’s chain, Kulai reached in to dislodge them. …When it comes to a healthier future, Kulai sees hope. His son is now 20 — the same age Kulai was when he was injured at work. “If my son got hurt, I’d be shattered,” he says. “Being a father has made me want to do more for young people — to see if there’s a way to inspire.”
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. 
The United States’ top trade official says he’s pushing for changes to continental trade rules to prioritize U.S. content in manufacturing supply chains, but sees a path to preferential tariff rates in North America if Canada and Mexico co-operate with external tariffs on other countries. At the same time, Jamieson Greer warned that negotiations with Canada around the future of the country’s auto sector could be difficult, while discussions about trade in commodities should prove easier. …Canada has not yet started formal talks with the U.S. and won’t be at the negotiating table this week in Mexico City. The three governments have to decide on July 1 whether to extend the agreement for 16 years or move to a period of annual reviews for 10 years. …Ottawa has signalled an openness to this type of “Fortress North America” approach. But Prime Minister Mark Carney wants to see the U.S. lower its sectoral tariffs on automobiles, steel, aluminum, copper and wood products in return for moves toward deeper integration in key sectors. [A Globe and Mail subscription is required for full access to this story]
OTTAWA — The Canadian Truck Dealers Association says it needs Ottawa to quickly fix a paperwork problem that will prevent dealers from importing new models from the United States next year, warning it will cause further economic pain if the issue isn’t solved. “If Canada faces a shortage of heavy trucks, the impact will extend far beyond our industry,” said Kevin Disher, the head of the association, at a press conference on Parliament Hill on Thursday. “This issue affects every major sector of the Canadian economy. Shipping, infrastructure, construction, forestry, mining, agricultural. If trucks become more difficult or more expensive to access, those costs move throughout the supply chain and ultimately impact Canadian businesses and households.” The truck dealers said manufacturers have been flagging the issue to the federal government for a year, with little progress. Disher said the problem arose after the United States changed how it certifies emissions standards for trucks built there. 
There’s no need to make the explanation of the carbon pricing, carbon capture and bitumen pipeline deal announced Friday by the federal and Alberta governments too complicated. It’s actually pretty simple. After all, notwithstanding their political differences, Prime Minister Mark Carney and Premier Danielle Smith have more objectives in common right now than they don’t, so it couldn’t have been that hard for them to reach an agreement. …Of course they weren’t going to have all that much trouble finding ways to grant the Canadian oilpatch its wish. …Carney needs to keep his coalition together as well. Instead of MAGA separatists on the right who would really rather be part of the US… he needs to appease moderate green voters in BC and Quebec and somehow hold the country together. …If Carney is sneakily giving Eby a veto, British Columbia’s premier doesn’t seem too happy about it.
A B.C. forestry company embroiled in insolvency proceedings has been handed a $429,000 penalty and two-year ban from hiring migrant workers after it was found to have violated several federal regulations. The sanctions to San Industries (part of the San Group) came after federal inspectors found it had breached five sections of the Immigration and Refugee Protection Regulations, rules designed to protect temporary foreign workers. According to a May 15 decision, inspectors found pay or working conditions did not match what San Industries had advertised. The employer was also found not to be engaged in the business the workers were hired for and could not show that the job it had sought to fill matched its Labour Market Impact Assessment application. And in another violation, San Industries was found to have broken federal or provincial laws for hiring and recruiting employees. …At $429,000, the penalty is the province’s second-largest on record.
The Supreme Court of Canada has decided it will hear BC’s appeal of a lower-court ruling that upended the Mineral Tenure Act and potentially gives the Declaration on the Rights of Indigenous Peoples Act the force of law. No hearing date has been set by the Supreme Court of Canada. BC Premier David Eby has said the BC Court of Appeal’s 2-1 ruling in December, which found the Mineral Tenure Act “inconsistent” with DRIPA, could put too much power in the hands of judges regarding how reconciliation with First Nations should take place. The Act was intended to gradually bring provincial laws into alignment with the UN Declaration on the Rights of Indigenous Peoples. But Eby has warned the decision brings it into place all at once. “It is absolutely crucial that it is British Columbians, through their elected representatives, that remain in control of this process, not the courts,” Eby said.
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 
The global trade landscape is shifting rapidly, which has created uncertainty and challenges for workers, industries and communities across Canada. …Workers whose jobs have been directly or indirectly impacted by global tariffs will receive support to help them adapt, retrain and succeed, as a result of a partnership agreement announced today by Wayne Long, Secretary of State, alongside Jean-Claude D’Amours, New Brunswick’s Minister of Training and Labour. …Specifically, $13.8 million over three years will be invested through the new Canada–New Brunswick Workforce Tariff Response to support workers in the softwood lumber, mining, construction and transportation sectors, as well as other directly and indirectly tariff-affected industries. This new funding will help over 1,500 workers in New Brunswick build new skills and seize emerging opportunities.
Canada Wood Japan has helped secure an important market-access outcome for Canadian Hem-Fir (N) dimension lumber in Japan. In collaboration with the National Lumber Grades Authority and the Canadian Lumber Standards Accreditation Board, Canada Wood Japan worked with Japan’s Ministry of Land, Infrastructure, Transport and Tourism to obtain recognition of the revised standard design values for Hem-Fir (N) dimension lumber graded under NLGA standards. For builders, designers and structural engineers in Japan, design values are essential. They provide the basis for structural calculations and help determine where and how lumber can be used in code-compliant buildings. When grading rules or design values are revised in Canada, those changes must also be properly understood and accepted by Japanese regulatory authorities to ensure continued market access. …Canada Wood Japan demonstrated that the revised Hem-Fir (N) design values would continue to meet Japan’s structural safety requirements and would not compromise the performance of conventional wooden buildings. 
TORONTO – Since 2023, communities across Canada and around the world have been experiencing record-breaking wildfires and working to help restore forested landscapes in their aftermath – but the best practices behind forest recovery in the wake of extreme wildfires are evolving. To better understand the decisions and approaches for post-wildfire forest restoration in Canada, Forests Canada surveyed and interviewed forest managers and tree planting practitioners and is presenting the findings in a report titled Forest Restoration After Wildfire: Knowledge Gaps and Future Needs Analysis. “The aim of the report is to identify how decision-making processes for post-fire recovery are changing in the wake of the increasing intensity and severity of wildfires,” Jess Kaknevicius, CEO, Forests Canada, says. “How are practices changing to maximize the successful establishment of forests…? We know the vast majority of Canadians believe that forests are a vital part of our national identity, so these questions are very important.”
WASHINGTON, D.C. and OTTAWA, ON — The Sustainable Forestry Initiative (SFI), along with others worldwide, shares the commitment to ensuring the health and resilience of forests. The European Union has identified the 
HAZELTON – The Forest Practices Board will audit the forest planning and practices of BC Timber Sales (BCTS) and timber sale licence holders in the Kispiox Timber Supply Area (TSA) portion of the Skeena Business Area, starting Monday, June 1, 2026. The audit will examine harvesting, roads, silviculture, protection activities and associated planning. These activities will be assessed for compliance under the Forest and Range Practices Act and the Wildfire Act. BCTS operates throughout the Kispiox TSA, within the Skeena Stikine Natural Resource District. Activities in the audit area are administered from the Hazelton Field Office. The audit area overlaps the territories of the Gitxsan, Wet’suwet’en, Gitanyow, Nisga’a, Lake Babine Nation, Kitselas, and Tsetsaut Skii km Lax Ha First Nations. …The area includes mountainous terrain, rivers and lakes that support recreation, wildlife habitat and important fish populations, including several salmon species, bull trout, Dolly Varden and lake trout.
Local residents are being invited to help shape the next decade of local forestry management at an upcoming public open house in Coldstream. The provincial government, in partnership with local First Nations groups, are hosting a joint engagement session on Monday, June 8, to gather community feedback on the development of the tmíxʷ naqscn Forest Landscape Plan (FLP). …The new FLP framework is a legal mechanism designed to replace older Forest Stewardship Plans. Once established by the chief forester, the 10-year plan will govern all timber harvesting, road layout and silviculture activities for BC Timber Sales and local forest licensees across the region’s watersheds. …The finalized FLP will shift the focus toward long-term ecosystem health, addressing critical modern challenges such as wildfire risk reduction, climate change adaptation, old-growth protection, and biodiversity, while maintaining a predictable and sustainable timber supply
A province-wide public tour this June will bring a citizen-led proposal for forest management reform to communities across BC, with stops in Campbell River on June 11, Quadra Island on June 13 and Courtenay on June 15. Jennifer Houghton, campaign director of the New Forest Act Proposal, will lead a series of public presentations called the 2026 New Forest Act Roadshow on the future of B.C.’s forests, watersheds and forest-dependent communities. …“Right now, B.C.’s forest laws are built around maximizing timber extraction,” Houghton said. “The New Forest Act is a proposal to shift forestry toward ecological limits, stable communities, and long-term ecological function instead of short-term liquidation. …Spearheaded by the Boundary Forest Watershed Stewardship Society, the proposal has been developed with contributions from forest ecologists, including forester Herb Hammond. …More information the full 
ALBERTA — West Fraser says its proposed Mount Tecumseh Harvest Plan would cover 474 hectares and is scheduled to begin in 2026, with the company stating the work is part of a broader approach to sustainable forest management and wildfire risk reduction near communities. In an emailed response to the Crowsnest Pass Herald, Joyce Wagenaar, director of communications for West Fraser, said harvest planning is a key part of the company’s work and allows it to source timber for renewable wood products used in home construction and other purposes. “Harvesting plans are a key component of our work at West Fraser enabling us to responsibly source timber to produce renewable wood products to support home construction and other uses,” Wagenaar said. She said West Fraser views sustainable forest management as an approach that balances environmental, social and economic values over multiple generations. …Wagenaar said questions specifically about the provincial program would be best answered by the Government of Alberta.
The biggest comprehensive literature review to date has confirmed that Indigenous stewardship bolsters conservation goals. The literature review was published recently in People and Nature and found “a clear, positive relationship” between conservation and Indigenous stewardship, said lead author William Nikolakis, associate professor at the University of British Columbia faculty of forestry and environmental stewardship. “The evidence is clear that Indigenous Peoples’ lands do deliver conservation outcomes that are superior to, or at least equal to, state-run protected areas,” he told The Tyee. This is despite Indigenous lands largely not being protected by or formally recognized by their country, and Indigenous Peoples around the world largely not being paid for their stewardship by the state, Nikolakis said. In Canada, the federal government helps fund Indigenous Guardians who steward their traditional lands. Indigenous stewardship has a “value to humankind globally,” he said, and there’s an opportunity to boost it even further.
…forests absorb roughly 7.6 billion metric tonnes of carbon dioxide every year—double what they emit. That number hides some worrying trends. In Canada, logging and wildfires flipped Canadian forests from a net carbon reservoir to a net source about 25 years ago, according to the federal government. British Columbia responded by launching one of the world’s first large-scale projects designed to generate revenue for local communities by not logging old-growth forests. The model, which began in the Great Bear Rainforest in 2009 … created market value by putting a price on carbon locked in and absorbed by trees. …Cheakamus Community Forest forest raised $600,000 in forest carbon offsets in a single sale to a mining company… But while Cheakamus celebrates rising demand and higher prices, Gary Bull, a professor emeritus of forestry at the University of British Columbia, said B.C.’s decision to regulate the carbon market has made it nearly impossible for others to take part.
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.
The Nova Scotia government has issued a tender to convert five public buildings to wood heat systems — a move one member of the forestry sector says will have widespread benefits. The tender targets heating infrastructure at the Nova Scotia Community College’s Kingstec campus, Roseway Hospital in Shelburne, Digby General Hospital, Soldiers Memorial Hospital in Middleton, and St. Martha’s Regional Hospital in Antigonish. …Successful bidders will also be responsible for procuring the wood fuel. The province stated in the tender documents that it “expects the focus of wood procurement to be from small private woodlots,” stipulating that 100 per cent of the lower-grade primary wood fuel must be harvested within Nova Scotia. …Marcus Zwicker, Forest Nova Scotia, added that requiring boilers to be fed with Nova Scotia product opens up new markets for local forestry contractors and woodlot owners while ensuring cheaper wood cannot be brought in from outside jurisdictions.
NEW BRUNSWICK — NB Power says it has green lit a plan to buy 300,000 tonnes of wood pellets this year in efforts to convert its largest power plant in northern New Brunswick from coal to biomass. The Crown utility says it’s now in procurement talks with five potential suppliers, all within Eastern Canada, to supply the Belledune Generating Station. That’s as the Holt government has quietly issued a Crown timber sub-licence to one of those five, a partnership between Eel River Bar First Nation, Pabineau First Nation, and Arbec Forest Products. The trio, together behind what’s being called the Belledune Biocoal Joint Venture Group, has also recently filed an environmental impact assessment with the Department of Environment and Local Government to build a torrefied wood pellet production facility at the Port of Belledune in support of NB Power’s transition away from coal burning power generation.
As cooler, rainier weather has eased wildfire risks in northwestern Ontario, a number of travel restrictions have been lifted in the region. An implementation order was first issued Saturday near a wildfire known as Fort Frances 5 in the Dryden, Fort Frances and Atikokan district, limiting travel and certain activities. On Sunday, a second implementation order was put in place due to a fire called Fort Frances 4 in the same district “to ensure public safety and/or to ensure effective fire suppression.” Both orders were lifted Tuesday evening. “All travel and the use of roads and lakes in the areas previously identified are available and residents may return to their properties. Wildland fire suppression activities are ongoing on Fort Frances 4 and Fort Frances 5, but public safety relating to these fires is no longer a concern,” according to the province’s 
In this latest installment of his memoirs from the seed collection camps of northern BC, veteran cone collector Don Pigott recounts an unforgettable 1984 expedition through the Dease Lake and Cassiar region in search of lodgepole pine cones destined for Sweden’s forestry program. What begins as a straightforward collection job quickly becomes a vivid portrait of life in the north — from remote campsites, mining towns and ghost settlements to colourful characters, First Nations communities, and the ingenious habits of squirrels whose cone caches supplied much of the harvest.