Lumber Tariffs Are Killing My Logging Town
I moved from Punjab to Williams Lake, B.C., in 1974. At age 21, I hadn’t planned on moving to such a remote town—the population was around 6,000 at the time—but, while visiting Vancouver, a friend and I happened to stop in Williams Lake. There, I met a woman named Sharon, and she was so lovely I didn’t dare leave; we were married two months later, and I’ve lived here practically ever since.
1974 was a rough year economically, so I worked odd jobs before becoming an electrician in 1985 and starting at what is now Tolko Industries, one of the largest lumber companies in town. Then, in 1993, I was approached by people in town to run for the Williams Lake City Council—I had done a lot of volunteering and was well-known in the community. I ended up serving on the council for 21 years, and eventually, I was elected mayor in 2022.
Williams Lake is an industry town at heart. When you drive in, you see stacks of processed wood in the lumber factories and massive trucks rumbling to nearby mines. A railway that transports our products to the rest of Canada runs through the town. The lumber industry was just starting to gather momentum when I first arrived. Since then, it’s grown to become the biggest industry in our region and is central to the town.
Our population is only around 11,000, but the two biggest lumber companies, Tolko and West Fraser Industries, each operate two mills in the region that employ a total of about 870 people. In addition to the lumber producers that process the wood that eventually becomes furniture and buildings, we also have Drax, a company that uses forest residuals to create pellets to burn for heat, and Atlantic Power, a biomass plant that uses residuals to produce electricity sold to the B.C. Hydro grid. Drax employs 30 people, and Atlantic Power another 50. Those numbers might seem small, but one job in the lumber industry produces almost four indirect jobs in the community. Sawmill workers go to the grocery store, get haircuts, pay for utilities, et cetera. Everything depends on lumber; it’s all interconnected.
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Much of the wood from Williams Lake gets sold across the border: Canadian wood makes up around 24 per cent of the U.S. lumber market, and in 2024 alone, Canada sold around $15.9 billion worth of wood products to America. Southern states like Alabama and Tennessee have been building up their logging capacity, but they have a far inferior product compared to what we have here in B.C. By God’s grace, we have the best wood in B.C., second to none. Our trees grow more slowly because the climate is colder. As a result, the growth rings are narrower, which means the wood is much harder and more durable than anything coming from the South.
Our current tariff struggles are predated by a decades-long feud over Canada’s share of the U.S. lumber market, all because of our output. For years, the U.S. lumber industry has accused the Canadian federal and provincial governments of giving subsidies to lumber producers that keep the cost of Canadian wood artificially low. The accusations are false, but nonetheless, the U.S. government has enforced duties on Canadian softwood lumber on and off for years; one year it was 15 per cent, another it was six point five. The duties have been deemed illegitimate by the World Trade Organization, but there hasn’t been a settlement, so that money—billions of dollars paid by Canadian lumber producers—is still held in a trust.
We’re used to some tariffs on our lumber exports, but the trade war has made it untenable. In mid-October, the Trump administration imposed a 10 per cent tariff on all imports of softwood timber and lumber, on top of the existing 35 per cent tariff on Canadian wood. I was in my office when the news was announced. One of my council members emailed me in a panic, and our phone rang off the hook with concerned constituents. I made a series of calls to Victoria, to members of the legislative assembly of B.C., and to the premier’s office. I also called the local sawmills.
Since the latest round of tariffs in October, all four of our mills have curtailed production. West Fraser is shutting down their sawmills entirely, and the Tolko mills are not running at full capacity. They’ve already laid off quite a few people, but thousands more jobs are at risk. Residual users like Drax and Atlantic Power have reduced their operations as well, because when the mills aren’t operating, there isn’t enough by-product for them to run efficiently.
At the council office, we are concerned about the potential loss of tax revenue that will come from all the layoffs. People need to be able to feed their families before they can pay taxes. With less tax revenue, the town might not be able to afford to provide basic services for our residents, like trash collection and road clearing. Right now, one of the big projects in Williams Lake is the development of a new water treatment plant that will provide safe and healthier drinking water to our residents. If the town’s budget suddenly changes drastically, we might have to slow down construction. The economic uncertainty in our town also has ripple effects on the whole region. We look small on paper, but we are the service centre for 35,000 people, including 15 Indigenous communities. These people come into Williams Lake every day for school, hospitals, jobs and banking. We can’t be the service centre if we can’t provide the services.
The curtailing of lumber production has an environmental impact as well. The Williams Lake Timber Supply Area where our lumber comes from is one of the biggest in the province, and we’re allowed to cut 2.9 million cubic metres per year. Reduced demand means that we’re not harvesting at the level we’re allowed to harvest at according to sustainability research. This is not a good thing: the wood that remains ends up as tinder for massive forest fires—last year was already the second-worst fire season on record, before the brush was left to pile up. We’re losing on both ends when it comes to tariffs: we’re not only losing our market in the U.S., we’re also wasting natural resources.
There are some reasons for optimism. The council and I are excited about the new federal budget. We hope to see some major investment going into housing construction, which is a great way to use Canadian forest products. We have a massive need for housing in British Columbia, particularly in the north; Williams Lake has a projected need of 1,000 houses over the next decade to keep pace with demand. One of our big hopes is that we can direct more locally produced lumber toward housing construction initiatives in B.C. Federal and provincial subsidies will be crucial, though, since trade uncertainties have disrupted supply chains, making construction even more expensive.
For a long time, the U.S. has been Canada’s best customer for wood, but it may be time to diversify our customer base. In a twisted way, the tariff has been a wake-up call to reduce our reliance on the U.S. and think seriously about developing our Asian export market. The practice of selling primarily to the U.S. hasn’t been sustainable for a while, and it’s time to finally do something about it.