Sawmill closures and job losses were the top of mind for North Cowichan’s municipal council as they addressed senior levels of government during their visit to Victoria last week.
Since June, access to viable logs has hindered production at the Chemainus and Cowichan Bay sawmills, and mayor Rob Douglas says that has affected as many as 200 workers.
Douglas says talks with the Minister of Forestry Ravi Parmar regarding fibre access issues for the mills and how to resolve them to stimulate industry growth and get people back to work were very productive.
“We discussed with the minister how to improve fibre access with some of the tree farm licenses on the northern half of Vancouver Island,” Douglas says. “We’ve been very dependent on the States for some time, but the minister is going to be opening up new trade offices in Europe to try and diversify those markets.”
Douglas says while local mills in the Cowichan Valley are being hit hard by the tariffs imposed on softwood lumber, this is a much broader issue and needs to be addressed.
“These new softwood lumber duties are having a devastating impact on our mills, and affecting jobs right across the province,” says Douglas. “The duties are over 35 per cent and that demonstrates how over-reliant we are on markets in the United States.”
Tariffs and shortage of viable logs have directly impacted local mills, and Western Forest Products informed the municipality they intended to curtail jobs in their Chemainus mill back in June.
On Oct. 7, 2024, Western Forest Products addressed the reduced lumber production by stating they were going to reduce lumber production by 30 million board feet and can be attributed to the combination of market challenges.
According to Douglas, the Chemainus sawmill is scheduled to be shut until the end of the year, and the Cowichan Bay sawmill could be down until Oct. 23.
