B.C. Forests Minister Ravi Parmar announced on Thursday that the federal government is pitching in $21 million to support retraining and retooling forestry workers and operations in the province.
The money comes as part of Ottawa’s more than $2 billion commitment to support the sector as it faces tariff tradewinds, stiff foreign competition and a lack of easy access to economically viable timber. It is funded through a $70.4 million workforce support fund announced in March.
Parmar says that if a combined rate of tariffs and duties stays as high as it has been, roughly 45 per cent, the industry in B.C. will need billions of dollars more in aid.
“We are going to need more dollars,” he said. “Could be $6 billion, could be more.”
The grants can be used to retrain workers, pay wage subsidies, aid businesses seeking to expand into new areas of work, and fund community-led projects that generate jobs.
Parmar says the province’s forestry industry must change to add more value-added production because it can’t keep up with low-cost foreign production, particularly from Asian and South American pulp mills.
“It’s really important for us to acknowledge that the forest sector of 50 years ago is not going to be the forest sector of tomorrow,” he said. “Even the forest sector of 10 years ago is not going to be the forest sector of tomorrow.”