The U.S. Department of Commerce will start annual administrative reviews of existing antidumping and countervailing duty measures on key wood imports on March 9, 2026, and it plans to issue final results by January 31, 2027, the department said in a notice. The reviews cover Canadian softwood lumber under the antidumping order A-122-857 and the countervailing duty order C-122-858 for January 1, 2025, through December 31, 2025. They also cover Chinese certain hardwood plywood products under antidumping order A-570-051 for January 1, 2025, through December 31, 2025, and Chinese wooden bedroom furniture under antidumping order A-570-890 for January 1, 2025, through December 31, 2025. Commerce said it may limit the number of companies examined and then select respondents using U.S. import data or quantity-and-value questionnaires. It said it intends to place the data or questionnaires on the record within five days after publication of the initiation notice and make respondent selection decisions within 35 days after publication.
The Musqueam First Nation’s agreement with Ottawa to advance the nation’s rights and title over an area that spans the western half of Greater Vancouver will force Canada to grapple with overlapping Indigenous claims, the boundaries of civic governance, and the principles of co-operative federalism. The deal acknowledges the existence of constitutionally protected Aboriginal title and creates a framework to implement Musqueam’s rights and title in their traditional territory. It is accompanied by two other agreements that create a framework for shared decision-making over fisheries, marine stewardship and land use. Just where that title will be recognized, and what rights will be affirmed, are yet to be negotiated. The Musqueam’s traditional territory has overlapping and shared territories with its First Nation neighbours. …Ottawa’s deal with Musqueam First Nation raises alarm about property rights in Vancouver area. …Cowichan decision leads to another claim on private lands in BC. [to access the full story a Globe & Mail subscription is required]
Conifex Timber announced that its wholly-owned subsidiary Conifex Mackenzie Forest Products has completed a $19 million secured term loan with the Business Development Bank of Canada (BDC) under the Softwood Lumber Guarantee Program. The loan has a maturity date of July 15, 2033. …The loan allows for interest-only payments until August 2028. A portion of the loan was used to repay a bridge advance from Conifex’s existing senior secured timber lender. The balance of the loan is available for working capital and general corporate purposes. Conifex also announced that it successfully restarted its sawmill in February. With the successful completion of the term loan, the Company is progressing toward normalized operations and currently anticipates sustaining two-shift operations in the second half of 2026, subject to fibre supply conditions.
OTTAWA — The federal government is being accused of creating an uneven playing field in Canada’s shipping industry, and critics claim the Prime Minister’s Office is unwilling to rectify it. Later this spring, Ottawa is expected to launch a federal subsidy program to help reduce the cost of shipping lumber and steel between provinces by 50%. But the subsidies — promised by Carney back in November — will only go to rail companies. “We support this initiative to give a boost to those Canadian industries. But what we were asking was for parity because many destinations and commodities, only maritime transport can handle that,” said Etienne Duchesne, business development project manager at Desgagnés, a maritime shipping company based in Quebec. …In the House of Commons last week, Bloc Québécois MP Claude DeBellefeuille said the government was creating “unfair competition between rail transportation and marine transportation,” putting jobs and supply chains at risk.
EAR FALLS, Ontario — No news is not good news when it comes to the future of the sawmill in Ear Falls. Mayor of the community Kevin Kahoot says he’s supposed to talk with Interfor, the owner of the mill, this week. “We have regular conversations in the last few months…every couple of weeks,” says Kahoot. “It’s been kind of status quo recently. They keep pushing markets and tariffs and those kinds of things. But I don’t see a lot of movement maybe until springtime.” The sawmill shut down indefinitely back in October throwing 150 people out of work. [END]
WASHINGTON — Some two dozen states challenged U.S. President Trump’s new global tariffs on Thursday, filing a lawsuit over import taxes he imposed after a stinging loss at the Supreme Court. The Democratic attorneys general and governors in the lawsuit argue that Trump is overstepping his power with planned 15% tariffs on much of the world. …Section 122, which has never been invoked, allows the president to impose tariffs of up to 15%. They are limited to five months unless extended by Congress. The lawsuit is led by attorneys general from Oregon, Arizona, California and New York. …The new suit argues that Trump can’t pivot to Section 122 because it was intended to be used only in specific, limited circumstances — not for sweeping import taxes. It also contends the tariffs will drive up costs for states, businesses and consumers.
Fiber and glass are among the packaging substrates hardest hit by February closure and layoff announcements. Here are the North American facilities that have announced downsizing efforts:
VANCOUVER, BC – Canfor Pulp Products announced that at the special meeting of the holders of common shares in the capital of the Company held earlier, the Shareholders voted in favour of approving the special resolution authorizing the previously announced arrangement whereby Canfor Corporation will acquire all of the issued and outstanding Common Shares that it and its affiliates do not already own by way of a statutory plan of arrangement. …The Arrangement was approved by 96.02% of the Shareholders and 84.42% of the Shareholders excluding any votes of the Purchaser and its affiliates and any other Shareholders whose votes were required to be excluded. …Assuming that all remaining approvals are obtained and all other remaining conditions precedent to the completion of the Arrangement are satisfied or waived, the Company anticipates that the Arrangement will be completed on or about March 17, 2026.
WASHINGTON — American employers unexpectedly cut 92,000 jobs last month, a sign that the labor market remains under strain. The unemployment rate blipped up to 4.4%. The 
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Mortgage rates continued to decline in February, dipping below 6% in the last week of February. According to Freddie Mac, the 30-year fixed-rate mortgage averaged 6.05% last month, 5 basis points (bps) lower than January. Meanwhile, the average 15-year rate declined only a basis point to 5.43%. Compared to a year ago, the 30-year and 15-year rates are lower by 79 bps and 60 bps, respectively. The 10-year Treasury yield, a key benchmark for long-term borrowing, held relatively steady for most of February with an average 4.18% – a marginal decrease of 2 bps from the previous month. However, yields fell significantly in the final week of February. …Following the recent escalation of conflict in the Middle East, the 10-year Treasury yield has shown signs of reversing course. Investors are closely monitoring how protracted the conflict may become and its potential implications for global energy markets. If oil prices rise significantly, inflation pressures could intensify, potentially pushing Treasury yields higher.
If enacted, the new legislation would aim to streamline tariff exclusions for goods used in home construction, help stabilize material pricing, and support efforts to expand housing supply nationwide U.S. Sens. Jacky Rosen (D‑NV) and Chris Coons (D‑DE) have introduced legislation aimed at easing construction costs and addressing America’s housing affordability crisis by excluding key homebuilding materials from tariffs imposed under the Trump administration. The Housing Tariff Exclusion Act would create a process to automatically exempt many building materials from current and future tariffs and allow importers to apply for exemptions on other essential construction inputs. The bill comes amid ongoing concerns that tariffs on imported materials such as lumber, steel, and other construction inputs have driven up costs for builders, contributing to higher home prices and exacerbating supply shortages. …The bill has garnered support from industry groups including the NAHB.
City of Powell River Council has officially endorsed the Forestry is a Solution campaign led by a broad coalition of community leaders, workers and forest industry advocates. At the March 6 city council meeting, councillors reviewed correspondence from Kim Haakstad, CEO of BC Council of Forest Industries, which has the goal to demonstrate deep public support for BC’s forest sector and ensure it remains a strategic asset for the future. The request had three components. The first was to officially endorse the Forestry is a Solution campaign. Secondly, encourage community members to visit the forestryisasolution.com website to sign a petition and send a letter to their MLA, the minister of forests, the premier and the official opposition forest critic… and share information about the campaign. Mayor Ron Woznow said he had worked with 22 other mayors regarding the importance of forestry… especially in terms of the significant debt the province is facing.
PRINCE GEORGE – Recent shifts in the global wood pellet industry have started a debate in BC about forestry, climate impacts, and local jobs. Drax, a UK-based energy company, plans to stop using wood pellets from BC at its power plant in England. Environmental groups believe this move will not affect BC much, but the province’s Forest Minister disagrees. Ravi Parmar, BC’s forests minister, says critics are spreading fear and insists the industry uses byproducts from forestry, not old-growth trees. Michelle Connolly from Conservation North says that although Drax stopping shipments to the UK seems important, the situation in BC is actually much more complex. …Forest Minister Ravi Parmar says BC uses some of the world’s strongest sustainable harvesting practices. He adds that pellet plants use leftover byproducts from logging, not valuable logs from primary forests. 
OREGON — A historic state-tribal collaboration in Oregon has stalled after a charitable foundation pulled out of a potential land deal. The Oregon Department of Fish and Wildlife was preparing to purchase 11,438 acres of private timberland using a federal grant. The area is about 10 miles southwest of La Grande in the Blue Mountains. The agency planned to manage the land alongside the Confederated Tribes of the Umatilla Indian Reservation — the first such collaboration in Oregon. But the landowner, the Harry A. Merlo Foundation, has withdrawn from the deal “for undisclosed reasons,” according to the Oregon Department of Fish and Wildlife. The state wildlife department and tribes had secured $22 million in federal funding to acquire and co-manage the land. …The plan was to restore this swath of forests and meadows for elk and salmon habitat.
MONTANA — Three national forests east of Missoula are proposing a plan to require continuous logging across almost a million acres of southwest Montana for at least the next decade. On Monday, the U.S. Forest Service released a draft plan for a Tri-Forest Sustained-Yield Unit, which would direct logging to occur on more than 925,000 acres across the Beaverhead-Deerlodge, Helena-Lewis and Clark and Custer Gallatin national forests. The plan’s stated purpose is to “to support local economies and the timber industry.” Logging is predicted to ramp up to produce 35 million board-feet of lumber annually by the end of 10 years, according to the plan. … The plan says logging won’t occur in wilderness areas, recommended wilderness or wilderness study areas. …But some regional public land advocates are questioning the plan at a time when the Trump administration has pushed a number of other initiatives that favor the timber industry and reduce public comment.
OLMYPIA, Washington – Washington state is poised to significantly expand its efforts to combat climate change with a proposed agreement to link its carbon market with those of California and Quebec. The move, announced Tuesday by the Washington Department of Ecology, aims to stabilize and reduce the costs associated with decarbonizing the state’s economy. The draft linkage agreement is now open for public comment until May 1, 2026, with the shared market potentially launching as early as 2027. This collaboration represents a major step forward in regional climate action, building upon Washington’s 2021 Climate Commitment Act. …The linkage would allow businesses in all three jurisdictions to participate in joint auctions and trade carbon allowances freely. This expanded market is expected to stabilize Washington’s relatively new and more expensive carbon market, as California and Quebec have been operating linked markets since 2014. While aligning with California and Quebec, Washington maintains distinct climate goals. 
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