Canada has been slapped with additional tariffs on lumber and timber by the Trump Administration Tuesday, and BC Conservative leader John Rustad and Kamloops-North Thompson MLA Ward Stamer said thermal coal shipments need to be the target of retaliatory measures.
The MLA and BC Conservative leader also criticized Premier David Eby's government for not doing enough to make wood available.
An additional 10 per cent tariff on imports of softwood lumber and timber into the United States took effect Oct. 14. That’s in addition to the existing 35 per cent in tariffs. The U.S. government is also set to impose 25-per-cent increases on certain upholstered furniture, bringing that to 30 per cent in tariffs on Jan. 1, 2026. On the same day, a 25-per-cent increase on kitchen cabinets and vanities will take effect, bringing that to 50 per cent in tariffs.
The tariffs on lumber and timber are a blow to B.C.'s forestry industry, which Stamer said was in "crisis" due to over-regulation by government in the B.C. Legislature last week.
In a joint statement by Rustad and Stamer issued Oct. 14, the Conservatives said the crisis, now further aggravated by the tariffs, "was not inevitable."
"Forestry has been in significant decline for eight years under the NDP. The allowable cut has dropped by two-thirds. Now, with these additional tariffs, Premier Eby is jumping up and down and pointing fingers. The reality is we could be doing a lot more here in B.C., making more wood available, fixing the cost structure, and helping put the feet back under our sector," Stamer and Rustad said.
The BC Conservative politicians said action is needed when it comes to dealing with U.S. President Donald Trump, whose infatuation with tariffs has largely defined his administration's trade policies with countries around the world.
B.C. needs to get tougher in the face of this economic landscape, said Rustad and Stamer, who added that "banning Kentucky bourbon won’t do anything for our forest sector."
Specifically, Rustad and Stamer said B.C. needs to start by putting a levy on U.S. thermal coal that moves through B.C. ports. If that doesn't put enough pressure on Trump to bring him to the negotiating table, they suggested those shipments should be "outright banned."
"Forestry workers and communities have been paying the price for years, and these new tariffs will be the final blow. Mills are shuttering, contractors are idle, and families are running out of time. (The Council of Forest Industries) and industry leaders warned that over-regulation and fibre shortages were putting us on the brink, and now we’re there," Rustad and Stamer said.
The politicians shifted focus from Trump's tariffs to some more general ails of B.C.'s forestry industry, as they see them, saying in some parts of B.C. it takes up to three years to get a cutting permit — "which feels like a slow death sentence for an industry that built this province."
"Every day this government delays action, more jobs and communities are lost," Rustad and Stamer added.
Eby and Forests Minister Ravi Parmar called for urgent and immediate support from the federal government in light of the new tariffs Tuesday.
“When auto parts makers, when people who work to build those auto parts, when it’s steel workers in Ontario, when their jobs are in trouble, when their jobs are threatened, it’s treated as a national emergency – and rightly so,” Eby said during the news conference. “These are foundational industries for Ontario, for Canada. I feel the urgency around those steel jobs as much as any Canadian.”
