Forest fires are causing great anxiety as they burn, but beyond them, the forest industry continues to shed jobs and processing and administrative capacity. The lack of confidence follows half a year of reports calling for fundamental, structural change, which have yielded only administrative changes to the status quo that help only on the margins.
Six months of treading water
In February 2026, the B.C. Provincial Forestry Advisory Council’s From Conflict to Care report declared that industry was plagued more by internal matters than external forces. Then in June 2026, Minister of Energy and Natural Resources of Canada Tim Hodgson met with the Canadian Council of Forestry Ministers in Langley, BC.
At this gathering, the Canadian Forest Sector Transformation Task Force final report was presented; as the CBC reported and in his speech, the minister identified the “most significant barriers to competitiveness are homegrown.”
Now we have two independent reports, well researched by industry experts, identifying domestic policies that were deterring competitiveness and innovation and calling for transformational change in the forest industry.
More importantly, all members of the Canadian Council of Forestry signed on to a federally proposed Draft Action Plan to Transform Canada’s Forest Sector (a 25-year plan).
Yet none of this led Canfor to pause the decision to shut down a pulp mill in Prince George. The same is true for Interfor’s decision to shrink its headquarters in the heart of Burnaby.
All this may have explained Premier David Eby’s completely dispirited response when questioned July 29, 2026, in Prince Rupert by Global’s Ben O’Hara- Byrne (30 min. mark) about Interfor’s decision to relocate a portion of its head office to the state of Georgia.
The B.C. Council of Forest Industries (COFI) map at the top of this article clearly shows what should be obvious to everyone. Despite shrinking for 50 years, forestry is still too big to lose, and that should resonate in all regions of the province.
Bring back the past to secure the future
In days past, today would be a time when working people across the province took action and made noise. There are a number of reasons that this is not happening today.
First and foremost, the place of industrial unions in the British Columbia Federation of Labour is far from what it was in the 1960s through the 1980s.
At that time, the International Woodworkers of America (IWA) was the largest provincial union and had the largest memberships in most local labour councils, including the Lower Mainland. They realised mobilization opened the hearts and minds of policymakers
To their credit, a coalition of forestry industry organizations, including unions and communities, launched the Forestry is a Solution campaign in January 2026.
It is basically a petition and letter-writing campaign that has not gained traction in the Lower Mainland, where some 24,700 forestry-aligned employment exists. Now that it is known that Interfor offices in Metrotown are impacted, it should influence many others in similar offices to feel solidarity with other forestry workers.
Based on experience, it’s fair to say the campaign itself is too polite to be effective. It is not a campaign that will give politicians the courage and motivation to make real change; it needs emotion fueling it.
It is emotion that will catch the interest of the many thousands of professionals and administrative staff in the Lower Mainland whose jobs, connected to the forest industry, are every bit as insecure as the jobs of loggers, millworkers and log haulers from the Canada-US border to across northern BC.
Can there be a next step to save B.C. forestry
Today, there are three forest industrial unions with a membership in the Lower Mainland: United Steelworkers Canada – Wood Council, Public & Private Workers of Canada and UNIFOR.
Their memberships may be small today in the southwest corner of B.C., but the unions themselves have nearly 100 years of experience fighting for workers and industries.
These unions will be feeling and addressing the anxiety of their members in the small towns and villages all over the province, including the few in the Lower Mainland.
Connecting those same rural members and community leaders to their colleagues in the office towers scattered throughout the Lower Mainland, who are surrounded by millions of neighbours not facing the same circumstances, builds solidarity in the cause.
It is increasingly becoming apparent that letters and lobbying are not going to generate the courage and mandate for governments to take the required action.
It will take CEOs, Union Leaders, engineers, accountants, loggers, mill workers, truck drivers, logistics operators and their friends and relatives to move the rusty hands of this clock.
The union leaders have the experience and friends in other industrial unions to give this movement the juice it needs.
There would be a lot of old-timers with time to spare who would love the adrenaline of one more campaign. I know I would.
We can’t expect the companies and workers to remain engaged if there is no hope for a prosperous future.
This is BC, isn’t it? The Old Courthouse Steps are Waiting. Let’s get at it.
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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