Daily News for July 20, 2026

Business & Politics

NDP was asked four years ago to rescue B.C.’s pulp mills. It didn’t

By Vaughn Palmer
The Vancouver Sun
July 17, 2026
Category: Business & Politics
Region: Canada, Canada West

Vaughn Palmer

Forests Minister Ravi Parmar started the week on a positive note, announcing that the province would be making more wood available to custom cutters. The next day… Canfor announced the Northwood pulp mill will be closing permanently. …The BC Pulp and Paper Coalition said that the BC government could have done more to head off the Northwood closure. Coalition’s Joe Nemeth said …“had these two steps been taken, the closure of Northwood may well have been avoidable”. …Four years ago this month, the coalition gave the NDP government a plan for the pulp and paper sector. …The July 2022 presentation also came with a cautionary forecast about the fate of the sector without relief. There were then 16 mills operating in BC. As many as five could close over the next 10 years, the coalition warned. With the pending closure of Northwood, the coalition’s mill count will be down to 11 by the end of this year.

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Forestry

When sawmills close, wildfire risk grows

By Naresh Khanal, M.F.
The Oregonian
July 19, 2026
Category: Forestry
Region: United States, US West

…Already, forestry technicians are fanning out across Oregon’s federal forests, marking small-diameter trees with orange paint for removal by logging companies. Such “thinning” reduces the amount of fuel that can feed a wildfire. …But increasingly, that orange paint marks a dead end. Most Oregon mills aren’t built to handle these small diameter logs, and those logs are worth so little that cutting and hauling them often costs more than they are worth. …The Department of Forestry says roughly 13 million acres of state forestland need thinning to cut fire risk. But in many of the places that need it most, there’s no mill close enough to take the wood. …This year, two federal thinning sales, the Austin ODOT sale on the Malheur National Forest near John Day and the Pint sale on the Ochoco National Forest near Prineville drew zero bids at auction. …It’s a gap neither Salem nor Washington has been willing to name.

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