Paul Hoekstra
U.S. president-elect Donald Trump has tapped former Michigan congressman Pete Hoekstra to be his ambassador to Canada. Hoekstra served in the U.S. House of Representatives from 1993 until 2011. He also previously served as Trump’s ambassador to the Netherlands in the former president’s first administration. …Hoekstra is one of Trump’s first nominees for an ambassador position. The president-elect has also named nominees for ambassador roles to the United Nations, NATO and Israel. …Bruce Heyman, who had been Obama’s envoy to Canada from 2014 to 2017, said that the early naming shows the “importance of the relationship,” and pointed out that Hoekstra being from a border state gives him “direct knowledge and understanding of Canada.” “[This] should be good news for the Canada-U.S. relationship as they will have someone to work with to navigate the changes that are coming,” Heyman said.
The Montreal Longshoremen’s Union rejected a final offer made for a new labour contract, leading to a lockout being declared, the Maritime Employers Association (MEA) and the union said on Sunday. The MEA said the lockout will impact nearly 1,200 port workers at the Canadian port that handled 8.7 million metric tons in the third quarter of 2024. The lockout will further slow Canadian imports and exports at a time the Port of Montreal was already operating at partial capacity and as West Coast ports are stopped due to a separate dispute. The union representing longshoremen at the Port of Montreal said the offer was rejected by 99.7% of members because the employer refused to negotiate. Two terminals operated by Termont, representing about 40% of Montreal’s container traffic and 15% of total port volume, have been shut down since Oct. 31. However, after Sunday’s announcement all longshoring at the port will be locked out. 
VANCOUVER — Talks are set to resume between the union representing more than 700 locked-out British Columbia port supervisors and their employers. A representative for the International Longshore and Warehouse Union Local 514 said they have been ordered back to the table with the BC Maritime Employers Association and federal mediators on Saturday at 5 p.m. and that Sunday and Monday have been set aside for talks to continue if necessary. …Federal Labour Minister Steven MacKinnon had earlier Thursday criticized a lack of progress in talks to end the dispute, as well as a dockworkers strike at the Port of Montreal, saying there had been a “concerning lack of urgency.” …MacKinnon said he was “closely monitoring” bargaining in the disputes in B.C. and Montreal, which he described as “progressing at an insufficient pace.”
In a way, the stock market’s vote of confidence was surprising: Trump’s economic platform is a mix bag. Tax relief and deregulation are popular with investors, but trade-disrupting tariffs and budget-busting deficits could push up interest rates down the road. For Canadians, however, the Trump bag is not so mixed: new economic threats from Trump’s America are clearly on their way. …A lower corporate income tax rate, deregulation and energy renewal will be magnets for investment from Canada. Tariff policy and a review of NAFTA 2.0 would be especially harmful as we would be shut out of U.S. markets. Given nationalistic economic leanings on both sides of the aisle in Congress, we should expect more not fewer trade restrictions in the next four years. What should we do? Two things. Create a new growth agenda and work hard to protect our access to the huge U.S. market. 
To get a sense of the potential impact of Donald Trump’s plans for sweeping tariffs, look no further than the Canada-U.S. softwood dispute. …Since 2017 in the latest phase of the long-running trade war over lumber, companies based in Canada have paid more than $10-billion in U.S. duties. Production from U.S. sawmills, including those owned by Canadian-based companies, is exempt from the lumber duties. Canadian-based producers have descended on the U.S. South over the past dozen years and set up shop in the lumber region, and thereby found a way around the punitive duties for the U.S. portion of output.
B.C. business leaders are bracing for the potential economic impacts of another Donald Trump presidency. Trump has promised to implement new tariffs of at least 10% on all American imports, an attempt to promote made-in-America goods and boost the U.S. manufacturing sector. That could hurt BC manufacturers and the province’s forestry sector, contracting already stagnant economic growth, says Laura Jones, of the Business Council of BC. Tariffs “are terrible for consumers,” Jones says. They could raise the price of certain products — including softwood lumber — for Americans, forcing them to look elsewhere. …David Frum believes Donald Trump could ‘mess up’ the Canada-U.S.-Mexico free trade agreement and hold those countries ‘to ransom’. …A report released last month from the Canadian Chamber of Commerce found that a 10% tariff would shrink the Canadian economy, resulting in around $30 billion per year in economic costs.
It is with mixed emotions that the TLA Board of Directors announces Executive Director Bob Brash will be departing the TLA as of March 2025. On behalf of the board and TLA members, we would like to thank Bob for his 5 years of unwavering commitment to the TLA, its board of directors, great staff, and over 400 members. His tireless work advocating for the entire BC forest industry and contractor community has been truly inspiring. …Bob’s steady hand has been instrumental in uniting the forest industry and lobbying against the imposed changes on the industry. Bob fostered many positive relationships at all levels of government as well as other associations and leaders in the forest industry. Bob’s 45+ years of forestry knowledge and experience has been invaluable to the TLA. Please join us in thanking Bob for his passion and leadership to the TLA previously as a former board of directors member followed by 5 years as an excellent executive director, and for his many contributions to the forest industry. We are grateful for your service and hard work and wish you all the best in your future.
As many Canadian businesses are looking anxiously to what a Donald Trump presidency — and his promise of increased tariffs on imported goods — could mean for their bottom line, those working in B.C.’s lumber industry already have a sense of the impact: lost jobs, devastated towns and an uncertain future. …Canadian softwood lumber sold in America is already hit by duties that doubled under Biden’s presidency and are forecast to double again in 2025. Meanwhile, production in the United States has increased, bringing with it new jobs and investment — sometimes funded by the same companies that are closing up shop in Canada. …Also top of mind are protectionist measures taken by the United States making it more difficult for softwood produced in Canada to be sold across the border. …Both Canfor and West Fraser … now operate more mills in the United States than in Canada as they shut down or curtail operations at home.
Business groups say the work stoppage at BC ports is the latest in a run of supply chain disruptions affecting Canadian companies and the country’s economy. Employers at most of the province’s ports locked out their workers November 4 in a dispute involving roughly 700 unionized foremen. The workers represented by the International Longshore and Warehouse Union Local 514 have been without a contract since March 2023. “It’s been absolutely brutal. I mean, the timing of this is just really challenging,” said Pascal Chan, senior director of transportation, infrastructure and construction at the Canadian Chamber of Commerce. …Greater Vancouver Board of Trade president Bridgitte Anderson said the shutdown will disrupt $800 million in goods every day, warning it could put upward pressure on inflation. …Despite the importance of Canada’s ports, Fraser Johnson, a professor at the Ivey Business School at the University of Western Ontario said the rail disruption posed a more imminent threat.
United States President-elect Donald Trump has gained the Senate, Electoral College, and popular votes. What does this mean for our forest industry? China is our largest purchaser of logs… In addition, exports of wood furniture from China have risen 24% in the first seven months of 2024 — great news; then along came the Don. The US accounts for 27% of the furniture exports out of China which totalled $20 billion in 2023. The current tariff for Chinese furniture into the US is 5.4%. Trump’s increased tariffs [between 32.8% and 54.3% on furniture] are predicted to result in a reduction in demand for Chinese manufactured product by between 73% and 87% respectively. If we assume the midpoint of 80%, this would result in a total demand reduction of around 350 million pieces of furniture… New Zealand radiata is a favoured product for the Chinese furniture industry… Therefore, any reduction in demand for Chinese furniture products is going to directly impact on us.
BRUSSELS – The European Parliament sought on Thursday to water down a ban on the import of commodities such as beef and soy linked to deforestation, and backed a one year delay to the new rule, in a fresh push-back against the EU’s environmental agenda. The European Commission proposed a 12-month delay until December 2025 last month after complaints from a group of 20 EU countries, some companies and non-EU countries such as Brazil, Indonesia and the United States. However, it did not propose any changes to the substance of the law. …The parliament’s narrow vote to add a new ‘no risk’ category of countries with far lighter controls adds to uncertainty over the regulation as lawmakers will have to enter negotiations with EU governments. …Environmental groups said the vote was a terrible signal. Julia Christian at Fern, said the amendment would give EU forested countries a free pass and was “particularly egregious”.
In a significant development for the European plywood industry, the Greenwood Consortium has filed an anti-dumping complaint against Chinese hardwood plywood imports, citing low pricing as a threat to the EU’s plywood sector. This move has sparked an industry-wide debate, dividing opinions between those advocating for industry protection and those concerned about the potential impact on trade, imports, and European consumers. The Greenwood Consortium, a newly established coalition of nine European plywood producers, initially aimed to curb illegal imports of Russian birch plywood entering Europe via China. However, the scope of its campaign has since expanded to include all Chinese hardwood plywood, alleging that these imports are unfairly priced and harm the European industry. …In response, the Plywood Trade Interest Alliance… opposes a broad ban on Chinese plywood, arguing that such restrictions would harm the EU economy, compromise supply chain stability, and strain relations with China.
ALBERTA – Minister of Forestry and Parks Todd Loewen will be travelling to Japan with a delegation of forest companies on Nov. 8, in an effort to expand market opportunities for Alberta’s forestry products. Provincial officials say Japan is Alberta’s top market for wood pellet exports and the second-largest market for lumber and wood panels. This mission is expected to give Loewen an opportunity to support Alberta’s forestry product manufacturers as they grow sales, trade and investment. …From Nov. 8-15, Minister Loewen and the delegation, including the Alberta Forest Products Association, the Canada Wood Group and the Wood Pellet Association of Canada, will attend the Council of Forest Industries Tokyo office’s 50th Anniversary Wood Forum. While there, the delegation will visit the Canadian Ambassador and meet with Japanese trading partners, as well as current and potential investors.