Forestry groups tell Eby the sector is at a 'breaking point'

PENTICTON — British Columbia's forest industry told Premier David Eby in a letter the sector is at a breaking point and asked him to run a crisis team out of his own office. Four days later he stood in Victoria in a red-and-black plaid shirt he called the "single most Canadian piece of clothing" he owns.Global News legislature reporter Ben O'Hara-Byrne posted the first page of the letter Wednesday..The letter is dated Friday and addressed to Eby and the premier's office. Signatories on the letterhead include the BC Council of Forest Industries, the Truck Loggers Association, the United Steelworkers Wood Council, the BC First Nations Forestry Council, the Interior Logging Association, Woodlots BC, the Private Forest Landowners Association, BC Wood, and the BC Pulp & Paper Coalition."BC's forest sector is at a breaking point. Immediate action is required," the groups wrote. They called on the government to "urgently establish a Forestry Crisis Action Group, led by the Premier's Office and bringing together senior government decision-makers and representatives from across the forest sector.".The mandate they want is straightforward: get economically viable wood moving, cut costs, strip regulatory barriers, stabilize fibre supply, protect mills that are still running, and "retain — not retrain — British Columbia's skilled forestry workforce."They pointed to the federal Forest Sector Transformation Task Force, which has already said many of the worst problems in Canadian forestry are "homegrown." Tariffs sit outside Victoria's reach. Fibre, permits, and operating costs do not."The province has both the authority and the responsibility to act," the letter said.Eby used Tuesday, the first day of Canada's countertariffs on $27.6 billion of US goods, for a different show. He opened an Inner Harbour news conference with Alberta parody rapper OGR-Scintilla, then previewed new welcome signs at the US border. The line he read was, "Welcome to BC, Canada. Strong, proud, and never the 51st state. Sorry.".He wore the plaid, lumberjack-like overshirt for the cameras. Daily Hive and CTV both recorded him calling it a "Salmo dinner jacket" and "the single most Canadian piece of clothing I own." He said forestry families are "really hurting."He has also kept repeating a line that is misinformed and numerically confusing: that Russian forest products enjoy "easier access to the US market" than BC lumber. While it is true Russia receives better tariff treatment into the US market than Canadian lumber, Russia's total lumber exports to the US are microscopic by comparison to those of British Columbia.US imports of sawn wood from Canada were $4.92 billion in 2025. From Russia they were $87,990. All Russian wood products entering the United States that year came to $91.94 million, and $88.59 million of that was plywood, not dimension lumber. BC Stats put the province's own 2025 forest-product shipments to the United States at $5.89 billion, including $2.90 billion of softwood lumber. That is about a 33,000 to one ratio..Caroline Elliott, the 2026 Conservative leadership runner-up, also regarded the letter from forestry groups as ironic when placed next to Eby's dress-up performance on Tuesday.."While the premier is dressing up in plaid, spouting cringe Canadian cliches and announcing pointless signs that will do literally nothing, BC's forest sector is at a breaking point and is begging him for help," Elliott posted. She quoted the homegrown paragraph from the letter and wrote that British Columbia needs a government that spends less time on "contrived publicity stunts."On thing is for certain: there is no way to dress-up the numbers. The Council of Forest Industries told CBC in August that at least 21 BC lumber mills have closed permanently since 2023 — years before the Trump tariffs had even taken effect.In more recent months, Canfor is winding down the Northwood pulp mill in Prince George by the end of the year, about 300 jobs. Domtar is idling Howe Sound Pulp and Paper at Port Mellon in October, about 400 jobs. Brink Forest Products told CBC Saturday it is cutting 50 more positions at its Prince George finger-joint plant, on top of indefinite shutdowns in Vanderhoof and Houston. Interior lumber output had already fallen by roughly half from 2016 levels by 2024.

Forestry groups tell Eby the sector is at a 'breaking point'

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