After roughly 100 sawmills, pulp mills, and engineered wood plants closed down or cut shifts since 2000, and thousands of loggers lost their jobs, the trade union representing those workers has its hands full. The consensus is: this is do-or-die time to stabilize the forest industry in British Columbia.
USW Canada – District 3 represents workers across Western Canada, including BC’s unionized forestry workforce. Recently, District 3 Director Scott Lunny offered a forward-looking view of the industry on the Hotel Pacifico Podcast, despite the challenges it faces.
What constitutes a forward-looking outlook for the forestry industry today? One that recognizes system change is necessary—even if it results in a smaller workforce.
Jeff Bromley, the union’s Wood Council Chair, put it this way: “What’s the alternative—giving up on rural communities throughout the province? We accept the responsibility to manage a transition in the best interest of our members.”
Jeff explains that the industry faces two opposing existential threats. On the coast, there is no fibre shortage—the problem is the fibre profile: second growth, old growth (Douglas fir and cedar), and a surplus of low-value hemlock. The interior suffers from a fibre shortage, high costs, and unreliable permitting—driven by the impacts of the pine beetle, forest fires, and long hauls to increasingly distant mills. The result: roughly 100 mill closures since 2000.
What next?
The Provincial Forest Advisory Council’s report, From Conflict to Care, has tabled a set of recommendations — and the Steelworkers Union agrees with its main thrust.
The plan’s main points are: fix archaic data collection systems; adopt Regional Forest Management Areas (RFMAs); and replace stumpage fees with a royalty-style system aligned with market conditions, as in other extractive industries.
The union supports deeper collaboration with First Nations and communities, but hopes the process can move faster. To date, only the ‘Namgis First Nation and Western Forest Products have a draft framework awaiting approval. Mill closures and curtailments at the end of 2025 have heightened the urgency for workers.
There are jurisdictions in Canada already using similar management approaches, including Quebec and parts of British Columbia. The BC Community Forest Association’s 2025 Indicators Report makes the case:
“The success of community forests shows what is possible when forest management is locally driven. Growth of the Community Forest Program will only strengthen rural BC. Community forests demonstrate how local people, working together, can steward forests in ways that deliver lasting economic, ecological, and cultural benefits. As the Province looks to expand the program, the evidence is clear—community forestry is a model that works.” —Randy Spyksma, BCCFA President.
A 2016 Quebec study by the Montreal Economic Institute looked back at earlier, long-term, area-based systems and found that, when paired with local capacity, they supported investment and stability. There is an opportunity to build on that today while incorporating modern social and environmental expectations.
In Sweden, with a smaller forest land base and an industry dating back to medieval times, about 70% of forests are privately owned, and clear-cuts are much smaller; decisions are made locally within policy guardrails that give equal emphasis to production and environmental goals.
What could the future look like in B.C. under an RFMA system?
While an RFMA system brings the planning closer to home, no management system will work without first fixing the permitting—100% government responsibility. Without it, the next level of investment in the integration of AI and advanced manufacturing — won’t come.
On the coast, AI can address hemlock’s low value by driving efficiencies from the cutblock through the entire supply chain — improving harvesting decisions, milling performance, and potentially kraft pulping processes — encouraging a larger and more profitable hemlock harvest.
Expanding mass timber and all engineered products is essential across the province, especially in the Interior. AI will play a huge role in advancing this sector, as will the continued evolution of logging equipment — opening areas previously hard to access.
New Zealand is exploring distributed manufacturing using shipping container-sized mini-factories capable of scalable processes such as biochemical conversion, pyrolysis, and pulping. Because of their size, they can be located in the most advantageous locations — opening new areas and lowering costs.
Important to BC, they have potential applications in forest fire mitigation.
These developments create an opportunity to retool from a 1950s manufacturing model to a 2030s one — leaving more value in rural and remote areas while maintaining, and potentially growing, real GDP under locally developed plans.
Overcoming the politics
External non-market forces can undermine the future of BC’s forest industry. However, the two highest mountains to climb are decisions — one made by the government and the other by the public: incentivizing investment and achieving peace in the forest.
Both are linked. The bureaucracy needs to be rebuilt and fit for purpose — From Conflict to Care is clear on that. And economic health is the foundation for everything else: “Economic performance significantly impacts the Social and Environmental performances.” — ScienceDirect.
In simple terms, whether investing in modernizing capacity or improving environmental outcomes — both require a healthy bottom line.
Much remains to be done to incentivize investment in BC’s forests. Sometimes prosperity requires governments to be creative. Federal and provincial governments are doing so for other resource industries through Major Projects — but not for forestry. We have to ask, why?
On the other hand, progress is being made toward peace in the forest. First Nations are logging more, their stewardship role is growing, and reconciliation on forest lands is advancing.
As Reconciliation moves forward, First Nations communities, municipalities, local workers, and companies are acquiring the agency required to pull the discussion on old growth and other key issues off the global stage and back to local tables.
There is a growing list of organizations aligning, in whole or in part, with From Conflict to Care — a good sign for a plan that serves the broader interest. It will take continued goodwill and pragmatism from all sides.
A negotiated peace speeds things up and reduces casualties.
Jim Rushton is a 46-year veteran of BC’s resource and transportation sectors, with experience in union representation, economic development, and terminal management. Reach him at [email protected].
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