Ravi Parmar promised the industry $5 million and more timber for value-added lumber manufacturers, along with a review of B.C. Timber sales. The B.C. Tories want “tangible action.”
The B.C. government offered the province’s beleaguered forest sector more help Wednesday in the form of commitments for additional timber and financial aid for value-added mills in what Forest Minister Ravi Parmar admitted is going to be a difficult year.
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Parmar and Jobs Minister Diana Gibson unveiled the plans, which include doubling the amount of timber available to secondary, value-added mills and $5.1 million in assistance to 12 value-added producers, at the Natural Resources Forum in Prince George.
“We know that 2025 is going to be a tough year for the forest sector,” Parmar said. “Much of that has to do with softwood duties going up, and whatever this Trump tariff looks like.”
In his speech, Parmar said additional tariffs threatened by incoming U.S. president Donald Trump could be “devastating” to the forest sector, which heightened the importance of Wednesday’s announcement.
Parmar also promised a review of B.C. Timber Sales, the provincial agency that manages 20 per cent of the province’s harvest, aimed at providing “predictable and reliable market access to fibre,” along with diversifying the industry and building up partnerships with First Nations.
Parmar asked Lennard Joe, CEO of the First Nations Forestry Council, George Abbott, a former B.C. cabinet minister, and Brian Frenkel, a councillor with the District of Vanderhoof to lead the review.
And Parmar vowed that the commitment to double the amount of B.C. Timber Sales wood going to secondary manufacturers will “open the door to more businesses, more jobs and more prosperity in forest-dependent communities.”
B.C.’s political opposition, however, slammed the review as “more delays and bureaucratic process.”
“The forestry sector is in crisis and British Columbians deserve real solutions, not more reviews and delays,” said Ward Stamer, the B.C. Conservative forestry critic and MLA for Kamloops North Thompson.
Parmar, in announcing the B.C. Timber Sales review, promised to take action on its recommendations “within six months of launching the review.”
Stamer, however, said the province needs to expedite and streamline the existing system for approving timber harvesting permits and simplify rules that allow for the efficient use of timber damaged in forest fires.
Stamer added that delays in issuing permits pose “a significant barrier to the industry’s recovery.”
“Mills need predictable access to (timber) and they need it now,” Stamer said. “The government must cut through the red tape that’s holding our forestry sector back.”
Parmar said there is “a lot of work that my ministry has to do on making sure that we have fibre supply going to mills.”
However, Parmar said providing certainty for timber supplies will also come from the forest landscape planning launched by his predecessors, which were tasked with devising management plans for forestry operations that involved input from the industry, First Nations and communities.
“I’m a big believer in bringing the sector together to have these tough conversations and conversations about opportunities as well,” Parmar said.
Parmar added that the landscape planning process has also begun to yield results. In one example, Parmar pointed to the Kitsumkalum First Nation in the northwest. The Kitsumkalum bought the assets of the shuttered Skeena Sawmills in Terrace and, last week, Parmar approved the transfer of the harvesting rights that were tied to that mill to the Nation.
“So they can reopen that mill and create jobs and opportunities for the community, to the Nation,” Parmar said.
The $5.1 million Parmar and Gibson promised to value-added manufacturers come from the province’s manufacturing jobs fund and go to five planning projects and seven mill capital projects including $1.3 million to Cedarland Forest Products in Maple Ridge to buy new high-temperature kilns.
Mill closures over recent years, including in Vanderhoof and Chetwynd in 2024, have resulted in thousands of job losses. Parmar said “every forest minister who takes on this responsibility is concerned” about job losses.
However, he said the manufacturing jobs fund, which has spent more than $90 million to date, has sparked some $900 million in investments in secondary lumber manufacturing that have created or protected some 3,000 jobs.
“The importance of this manufacturing jobs fund really comes into focus when we look at the risk of tariffs,” Parmar said.
The province’s strategy, after working with the federal government to force a negotiated resolution to tariffs, is to “make sure we’re maximizing our jobs here in B.C. and making sure we’re resilient and less reliant on that north-south trade.”
With files from The Canadian Press