“We just want to go to work,” said Cody Herman. We spoke with Herman and his fellow United Steelworkers at a union picket line near Campbell River, BC in August 2025.
In June, USW Local 1-1937 went on strike in Tree Farm License 64 because the company insists on hiring non-union contractors to do union work. The new TFL is held by Western Forest Products and La-Kwa sa muqw, a partnership of four Vancouver Island First Nations: Tlowitsis, We Wai Kai, Wei Wai Kum, and K’omoks.
Striking worker Mark Bernard said, “No one’s talking” about ending the strike, which could drag on for months. Nor are the men hopeful that they’ll benefit from the federal government’s funding package for the lumber industry.
When the US imposed new import taxes on Canadian logs and lumber this summer, logging companies demanded a bailout from the federal government. And that’s what they got. As Canadian exports to the US crashed in August, Prime Minister Mark Carney pledged up to $1.2 billion in loan guarantees, grants, and other funds for Canadian companies to restructure their operations and diversify their products. But it’s not clear if the money and guarantees will actually help workers.
Companies are making deals with First Nations, like the La-Kwa sa muqw partnership, to do their “dirty work” in old-growth.
Ninety per cent of Canada’s timber is exported to the US, mostly in the form of lumber and raw logs. But Canadian wood makes up only 20% of the US market, giving our southern neighbour the upper hand in trade negotiations.
As Forest Products Association of Canada vice-president Eric Johnson admits, “We’re never going to diversify our way out of the US.”
In any case, the bailout strategy backfired. The US Department of Commerce declared it would double its duties on Canadian lumber to counter what it calls unfair public subsidies of Canadian lumber.
The new duties could be Trump’s biggest economic bargaining chip. If Carney is committed to getting the US to remove lumber tariffs, he will be forced to make substantial sacrifices in other areas.
Losing the forests
Forest industry losses will continue because the Canadian lumber industry is barely profitable. Almost all the old growth forests are gone. The easy-to-reach, low-elevation, high-value trees were taken years ago. What’s left is the “guts and feathers,” as Wilderness Committee campaign director Joe Foy says.
Even BC Forests Minister Ravi Parmar acknowledges that our forests have reached the point of diminishing returns. He blames forest fires and pine beetles, but ignores the effects of decades of clearcutting, overlogging, and mismanagement. Instead, Parmar boasts that his government is issuing logging permits faster than ever before – 80% of them in under 25 days.
Companies like Western Forest Products are making deals with First Nations, like the La-Kwa sa muqw partnership, to do their “dirty work” in old-growth forests, but there’s no guarantee that band members will ever benefit from these partnerships. First Nations can end up deeply in debt after buying into money-losing timber businesses, even as they destroy irreplaceable natural heritage.
Welfare for workers
BC Premier David Eby said, “I know that during hard times it is often the workers who pay the price.” It was meant as an expression of empathy, but it sounds more like a warning.
Carney says $700 million of his funding package will go toward guaranteeing loans so private companies can restructure their operations. “Restructuring,” of course, means downsizing, streamlining, and laying people off to be more competitive. The global economy compels Canada to compete with lumber suppliers in Mexico, Malaysia, and the Philippines.
Carney’s package includes $50 million to retrain those who will inevitably lose their jobs
It costs politicians nothing to claim that this bailout will benefit workers. But the only thing they can guarantee is a new round of austerity: cutting wages and benefits and replacing union workers with non-union contractors – the same gambit that led to the Steelworkers’ strike.
It turns out forest workers will get some backhanded support from Carney. His package includes $50 million to retrain those who will inevitably lose their jobs.
Bea Bruske, Canadian Labour Congress president, states the obvious: corporate loan guarantees are not what the labour force needs. “Workers want to know that our social safety net, which has some gaping holes in it, is being stitched up,” she told The Tyee. Specifically, she says, they need investment in social programs. “The right approach to take is to shore up those services that workers and their families depend on,” she said.
At least Bruske is looking out for workers and families – even if it’s only to direct them to the nearest welfare office.
Any industry that pays workers so little that they need social assistance to survive is not sustainable, and no amount of public money will keep it afloat for long.
Subsidizing failure
The missing piece of this debate is the social contract. Decades ago, local sawmills and value-added jobs were part of every Tree Farm License. The government had strict limits on raw log exports. That contract was scrapped by governments that caved to pressure from forest companies seeking quick profits. The industry lost 150,000 jobs in twenty years.
The federal government’s funding announcement seems to suggest its loan guarantees could bring back local sawmills and stop the flood of raw log exports. If so, the government could be positioned to fulfill its pledge of building millions of new homes with Canadian lumber. It might even lay the foundation for a new social contract.
As things stand, the bottom is falling out of the forest industry. Profit margins are tighter every year, and companies like Teal Cedar – loggers of Fairy Creek – will do whatever they can to stay solvent.
