BC Lumber Industry Pleased With Federal Help

The BC Lumber Trade Council likes the measures the federal government is providing to ease the impact of the US duties on Canadian softwood.

Ottawa has announced 867 million dollars in support measures.

Council president Susan Yurkovich is pleased the feds are standing together with the industry.

The funding includes loans and loan guarantees to help cushion the blow from the up to 24 percent tariffs.

Yurkovich says some of it is money to help find other markets, which she says will help.

“You know we’ve been big proponents of that in British Columbia, in particular in expanding our markets overseas and diversifying our markets away from the U-S.”

Yurkovich says there are several countries Canada can look to.

“Further support enabling that work is really important to help build more demand for wood in Asian markets, not just in China, but also Vietnam, Korea.”

She says so far, the duties haven’t had a major impact.

“Markets have been relatively robust in the US and prices have remained pretty strong. So that’s mitigating the impact of the duties. If prices drop, then I think you will see more of an impact.”

The feds are also providing money to assist workers who want to upgrade their skills and transition to a different industry