Pete Hoekstra
US President Trump’s comment that he is not looking to renew the continental trade agreement is actually an invitation to make a deal, the US ambassador to Canada said Thursday. Pete Hoekstra looked to reframe the President’s Wednesday remarks that the US does not need anything from Canada and may not renew the United States-Mexico-Canada Agreement. “You maybe don’t like the way the President says it, but … what he’s saying is we’re open to offers,” Mr. Hoekstra said. …Officials from all three countries have said they expect negotiations to continue beyond July 1, meaning the annual review scenario is more likely than an outright renewal. …Mr. LeBlanc said he and chief trade negotiator Janice Charette met with U.S. trade representative. “We’re doing the important work of answering some of the long-standing concerns that the United States has,” Mr. LeBlanc said. [to access the full story a Globe & Mail subscription is required]
UK — A strong and reliable supply chain is essential to the continued growth of offsite construction in the UK, and the collaboration between West Fraser and 
US President Trump has said he is “not looking to renew” the Canada-U.S.-Mexico Agreement (CUSMA). “I made the deal and the primary reason I made the deal is that NAFTA was the worst trade deal I’ve ever seen. Yeah. And I made it better. But I had the right to terminate.” …“We don’t need anything to Canada has, we don’t need anything that Mexico has, but they need everything that we have, and they have to treat us better.” …“With Mexico and Canada, we have trade deficits. We should have surpluses with them. We don’t need their cars. We don’t need their lumber. We don’t need their energy.” …CUSMA’s text allows each country the opportunity to extend the agreement for another 16 years or launch a series of annual reviews.
In addition to its attention-grabbing National Artificial Intelligence Strategy, last week the federal government launched its nationwide Forest Sector Action Plan. The premise behind these national plans and strategies is that individuals and businesses are incapable of managing their own affairs, and so need guidance from an all-wise federal government. …One excellent reason for skepticism about national government planning is given by the government itself. “Canada’s forest sector has faced crisis after crisis over the past 20 years,” it begins. Three sentences later, it says: “For decades, governments have delivered programs to promote investment, research, innovation, Indigenous involvement and market diversification in Canada’s forest sector.” If government forestry programs have produced crisis after crisis for decades, the idea that even more government planning will help is optimistic, to say the least. The action plan is full of central-planning interventions that have failed across industries for decades.
COUSHATTA, Louisiana – C&C Forest Products announced it is investing over $21 million to rebuild its Coushatta sawmill following a 2025 fire, repositioning the facility as a more efficient, cost-competitive specialty lumber and timber operation. The company is expected to create 77 direct new jobs… while retaining 27 current positions. Louisiana Economic Development estimates the project will result in an additional 256 indirect new jobs, for a total of 333 potential new job opportunities in the Northwest Region. …The project will reconfigure the existing facility at 306 Wilkinson St. with updated equipment and improved site layout to support more efficient production. Once complete, the rebuilt sawmill will focus on specialty lumber and timbers and will be capable of producing up to 90 million board feet annually. …C&C Forest Products operates sawmills in Louisiana and Arkansas.
Lumber climbed to $617 per thousand board feet, the highest level since October, as constrained supply outweighed subdued conditions in the housing market. The US lumber market remains tight, with domestic production failing to fully offset reduced imports from Canada following tariffs. Canada still supplies roughly 30% of US consumption, underscoring its continued importance despite trade barriers. The US Commerce Department has proposed lowering combined duties on Canadian lumber to 24.8% from 35.2%, but an additional 10% Section 232 tariff keeps the effective rate close to 35%. Supply pressures have been further intensified by wildfire damage and other production disruptions in Canada, prompting British Columbia to introduce emergency measures aimed at boosting timber availability after storms and fires threatened output. [END]
The Bank of Canada is leaving its benchmark interest rate unchanged as it tries to chart a course through global uncertainty. The central bank’s policy rate remains at 2.25 per cent today after its fifth consecutive hold. Bank of Canada governor Tiff Macklem says in prepared remarks that the economy was softer than expected in the first quarter of the year but global oil prices are also staying higher than first thought, which could keep the annual rate of inflation near three per cent for the next few months. The Bank of Canada can’t effectively respond to rising inflation and a weaker economy at the same time, so Macklem says leaving the policy rate unchanged balances those risks. The central bank sees a rebound in economic growth on the horizon but Macklem warns uncertainty is high around the war in Iran and US trade policy.
There have been consistent signs that the housing market is poised for a rebound. Russ Taylor has been tracking North American lumber markets for decades. The data, he said, keeps telling a different story. …”If things are unaffordable and there’s uncertainty and consumer confidence is weak, then nothing happens. People might be saving more money if they’re not spending it, but everyone’s worried about jobs and everything else, so they’re not spending.” The number Taylor keeps coming back to is lumber consumption. In 2016, the country consumed roughly 50 billion board feet. In 2025, the number was almost exactly the same. Ten years of demographic tailwinds, rising equity, and persistent housing shortage arguments, and consumption has not budged. …Housing starts have been declining every year since their 2021 peak, and Taylor expects 2026 to continue that trend. Repair and remodeling, which accounts for roughly 40% of US lumber consumption, has been similarly stagnant since the COVID period.
Annual inflation rose to a three-year-high of 4.2% in May, underscoring how elevated energy prices are rippling through the US economy, according to new data from the Bureau of Labor Statistics. Prices rose 0.5% on a monthly basis, driven higher by the US-Israeli war with Iran, the latest Consumer Price Index shows. The higher cost of energy accounted for 60% of the monthly increase. …“[4.2%] is still too hot for comfort, but the more important news was that the increase was concentrated mainly in energy, especially gasoline, rather than spreading widely across the economy,” economist Sung Won Sohn, at Loyola Marymount University. …May’s release is the first inflation report since Kevin Warsh was sworn in as the chair of the Federal Reserve, succeeding Jerome Powell. With inflation moving in the wrong direction and the labor market showing signs of resilience, economists expect the US central bank to keep rates unchanged — or even consider raising them.
Three years ago, the Ontario Building Code required that any developer taking on a mid-rise wood-frame building had to construct stairwells out of non-combustible material. That was expensive. It made construction challenging, and, according to the Canadian Wood Council, resulted in a lower adoption of wood-frame building. Since that requirement was removed in 2023, allowing full buildings to be constructed with wood, interest in mid-rise wood-frame building has increased considerably, especially for residential builds, said Hailey Quiquero, with the WoodWorks Ontario program, an initiative of the Canadian Wood Council. “Now, in our market, we’re sitting at around 50% of five- and six-storey buildings being built out of wood construction, so a great jump,” Quiquero said. “We’ve still got a long way to go. In BC, I think it’s greater than 80% of this market.” …Currently in Ontario, mid-rise wood-frame building is largely being used in residential projects, Quiquero said.
IRELAND — Minister for Agriculture Martin Heydon [et al]… welcomed the final report from the interdepartmental and industry 
LAKE COWICHAN, BC — Pumps will likely be required to sustain the river if dry conditions continue through the summer, according to Brian Houle, environment manager for Domtar Crofton Mill. Though the mill has shut down, Domtar remains the licenced operator. As of a June 4 report issued by Houle, Cowichan Lake has dropped to 80% capacity and the below-average snowpack has already fully melted. Updated modelling for the remainder of the year was analysed at a meeting of regulators and Cowichan Tribes on June 3. Domtar was guided to begin to reduce the flow to below 7.08 cubic meters per second (cms). …With no relief in sight, there’s been a push for a larger replacement weir to store more water in the lake to reduce the need for emergency pumping. …Domtar has been authorized to have qualified professional biologists monitor the river conditions. 
The Agriculture Department is making an ultimatum to thousands of its employees as part of its sweeping relocation plans — move to keep their jobs or quit. USDA is embarking on a multi-part reorganization plan that involves relocating more than half of its D.C.-area workforce to hubs across the country by the end of this summer. Employees impacted by these relocation plans work at the Food Safety and Inspection Service, Forest Service, Economic Research Service, National Institute of Food and Agriculture, and Food and Nutrition Service. …The memo also states that NASS and all components under USDA’s research, education and economic mission area will offer buyouts and early retirement to employees who received relocation notices. The Forest Service told employees earlier this month that it will offer Voluntary Early Retirement Authority (VERA) and Voluntary Separation Incentive Payments (VSIP) to staff impacted by its relocation plans.
Utah Sen. Mike Lee and fellow Republicans added a repeal of the controversial roadless rule to a previously bipartisan wildfire bill on Wednesday. The amended Wildfire Prevention Act passed out of the US Senate Energy and Natural Resources Committee on an 11-9 vote split along party lines and now heads to the full Senate. The act would nullify the 2001 roadless rule. …This move comes nearly a year after the USDA began an effort to rescind the roadless rule through an administrative process. The environmental review is currently underway and a decision is expected later this year. …Democratic senators introduced a second amendment early in the meeting on Wednesday in an attempt to strike the repeal of the roadless rule from the bill. …Senators in both parties initially supported the Wildfire Prevention Act, which instructs federal land agencies to set targets and report on prescribed fire and forest thinning to reduce wildfire risk.
Extreme drought and rising temperatures in the US are poised to overwhelm the Trump administration’s plans to control wildfire by logging federal forests, scientists say. …The drought is expected to lead to catastrophic wildfires that stand to become the new normal amid climate change, the researchers say. “The type of drought we’re seeing this year across the West is a glimpse into the future,” said Erica Fleishman, at Oregon State University. …The US is on track in 2026 for more wildfires than 2025, a much wetter year. More than 5 million acres burned last year. As of April, 1.8 million acres had burned so far across the US—double the acres burned in the same period last year. Trump administration officials say wildfire risk makes it imperative to log forests and help the timber industry. The administration is taking an aggressive approach to quickly suppress wildfires as it increases logging by 25% this year.
OREGON — A proposed new management strategy for the three national forests in Northeastern Oregon could more than triple the amount of commercial logging over the next two decades. The Forest Service hasn’t officially released a draft environmental impact statement for the revised management plans for the Wallowa-Whitman, Umatilla and Malheur national forests, which will start a 90-day public comment period. …Shaun McKinney, Wallowa-Whitman supervisor, said on Wednesday that he expects the Forest Service will publish the draft in the Federal Register “any time.” …Typically, national forests update their plans every 15 years or so. But the current plans for the three forests in the Blue Mountains date to 1990. The three forests encompass about 5.5 million acres, including about 311,000 acres in Washington that are part of the Umatilla National Forest. 
On the B.C. government website, you can read the following: “B.C. is a world leader in sustainable forest management”. …However, if you talk to BC forest ecologist Rachel Holt… or former B.C. Liberal MLA Mike Morris, you get a very different perspective. …The Council of Forest Industries says, “in BC. three to four tree seedlings are planted for every tree that is cut”. That does not solve the problem. In the last 40 years, the rate of cutting has sped up. That means there are many very young forests, not suitable for wildlife habitat and not suitable for logging. …Several groups in BC are pushing for less logging, protection of our remaining primary forests and more ecologically sound forestry practices. The down side? Large forestry companies make less profit. The upside? More jobs, healthy forests… fewer wild fires and fewer greenhouse gases.
ORANGE COUNTY, California — Environmentalists are trying to raise public awareness about a plan within the Trump administration to allow roads, and potentially long-term business development, in much of the nation’s federal forest system, including the biggest undeveloped stretch of Orange County. Recently, the effort has included rallies in Los Angeles, Orange and Riverside counties. More rallies are planned in coming weeks in central and northern California. At issue is the fate of the “Roadless Area Conservation Rule,” an administrative regulation that has been in place since 2001 as a way to preserve 60 million acres of federal land for recreation and habitat protection. The rule, which is not a law, has survived every presidential administration of this century, and environmentalists say it has helped protect everything from the Pacific Crest Trail to the California Condor. …Environmentalists say ending the roadless rule would be bad for the environment and for local property values. 
