Union says B.C. mill closure leaves workers ‘reeling,’ as industry woes persist

The latest blow to British Columbia’s battered forestry sector has prompted industry, union and local officials to call for immediate support, while the forests minister said he expects to announce changes to forest permitting within weeks.

The push comes after Canfor announced the impending closure of its Northwood pulp mill near Prince George, B.C., on Tuesday. Set for later this year, the closure will leave 300 people without work, adding to the approximately 15,000 jobs lost in the sector since 2022, according to a tally by the BC Council of Forest Industries.

Council president Kim Haakstad likened the situation to a medical emergency.

“The patient (is) on the operating table, it’s not the time to think about lifestyle changes,” she said.

“We need to do that, but we can’t only do that. We have to look at what we can do right now, and that first and foremost is fixing the permitting system for forestry.”

It can take years to get the cutting permits sawmills rely on, Haakstad said.

Forests Minister Ravi Parmar, meanwhile, said he expects to roll out plans for the province’s permitting system “imminently.”

“My vision for forestry, and what I am going to be delivering on in the weeks ahead, is a vision where I don’t believe we need cutting-permit-by-cutting-permit forestry,” he said in an interview Wednesday.

Parmar said his vision was to have permitting done ahead of time, “for a company to work with First Nations and partners to develop what their tenure is going to look like over the next 10, 20-plus years, submit that operational plan, and then get to work.”

Canfor said in its statement announcing the closure that additional pulp production capacity had come online globally, pushing prices down.

“Combined with the persistent challenges accessing fibre, these factors have resulted in a prolonged period of unsustainable financial losses,” it said.

Parmar said B.C.’s pulp sector can’t compete with producers in China, Indonesia and Brazil, places he described as having “very little to no labour standards, zero environmental standards.”

The solution has to be moving toward higher-value forest products and away from “commodity prices,” he said.

Last year, three major timber operations closed in B.C. — the Crofton pulp mill, a West Fraser sawmill in 100 Mile House and a Drax pellet mill in Williams Lake.

The BC Council of Forest Industries counts 21 lumber mills that have closed permanently or indefinitely in the province since 2023.

Reacting to the latest closure by Canfor, Gavin McGarrigle, Unifor’s western regional director, said the loss of so many jobs in a community the size of Prince George, with a population of 67,000, can have cascading social and economic impacts.

“The pulp mills are fed by sawmills, so there’s jobs that will be lost in the sawmills … Then you have all of the contractors that are associated with those facilities,” he said.

“Then you have to ask what is the market for getting logs to pulp mills when you don’t have a close pulp mill anywhere nearby?”

Prince George Mayor Simon Yu said he had been fielding calls from people expressing their sympathy since the closure was announced.

Still, Yu said his community is resilient and he’s hopeful the workers will find new local jobs.

“I’m an optimist in terms of when I look at Prince George and the forestry industry as a whole. But right now we’re hitting the bottom. Hopefully this is the bottom, and we go upward from now,” he said in an interview Wednesday.

McGarrigle said governments have been focused on diversification and medium-to-long-term planning, but workers need help now.

He said local and national union representatives would be meeting with the provincial Forests Ministry to discuss what could be done.

Canfor has moved many of its assets to the United States and Europe in recent years, he added.

“At what point does a company that started here, grew up here, says it’s Canadian, have an obligation to Canada? And I think that’s a bigger question that government needs to address,” McGarrigle said.

Yu said he would like to see Ottawa add a ministry dedicated to forestry, and for provincial officials to move from Victoria to Prince George, “where the action is.”

“Most importantly, I would like all levels of government, including the multiple small municipal governments that have sawmills in their town, to get together to formulate a long-term strategy,” he said.

Yu said the region’s annual allowable cut has been reduced to just over 30 million cubic metres, down from 100 million.

“That volume is not sustainable,” he said. ‘

“We also have to advocate to other levels of government to understand the global competition is upon us.”

Earlier this year, Ottawa released a final report from a task force aimed at looking for ways to “transform” the forest sector.

It made multiple recommendations, warning the sector faced “an existential risk” without “immediate, co-ordinated, and decisive action.”

Haakstad said the focus should be on creating predictable and economical access to fibre.

“Sawmills need to know when and how they’re going to get logs, and at what price,” she said.

In a statement Wednesday, the Opposition B.C. Conservatives said policies from the New Democrat provincial government have made it harder to keep mills open.

“Excessive environmental regulations, shifting definitions of old-growth, third-party agreements cutting into profitability, punitive stumpage fees, endless permitting delays and uncertainty around land claims have driven up costs and pushed investment out of B.C.,” it said.

The federal Conservatives also issued a statement saying the closure highlighted Prime Minister Mark Carney’s failure to secure a lumber deal with the United States.

Parmar, the provincial forests minister, has said B.C. would be leaning on its federal partners, through the Canada-British Columbia Co-operative Prosperity Agreement, to help support the forestry sector in the Prince George region.

This report by The Canadian Press was first published July 15, 2026

Ashley Joannou, The Canadian Press