Premier David Eby has assured the workers that are losing their jobs at the Crofton mill and their communities that the province stands with them, but there are severe challenges facing the mill and the forest sector in general.
Eby said at a news conference in Victoria on Dec. 3 that he and his government will do everything possible to support the approximately 350 workers at the mill and their families, and to determine if there’s any possible way to find a path for the mill to remain operating in some capacity.
But he acknowledged that the Crofton mill, and B.C.’s forest sector, are facing a “generational challenge” in dealing with continued poor prices for pulp internationally, and the lack of access to affordable fibre in B.C., which are the main reasons Domtar, the owners of the Crofton pulp mill, gave for closing the mill.
Eby said the use of much less wood killed by the mountain pine beetle for fibre as it becomes less available, the decimation of significant parts of the province’s land base by forest fire, and the reality that there is no longer a social licence from British Columbians to clear cut old growth forests are all factors in the forest industry’s problems.
“Then you pile on top of that the unprecedented economic attack of the president of the United States, including tariffs that are 46 per cent on one forest company alone in British Columbia, as well as record low prices for wood in the United States because of the collapse in home building and key markets like Texas,” he said.
Eby said the Crofton mill, as with most pulp mills in B.C., receive their fibre from operating saw mills, but many of the mills that operate on Vancouver Island, as well as in other parts of the province, are down significantly in production because of the massive tariffs that they face from Donald Trump and his attack on B.C.’s softwood industry.
“This is just a huge array of challenges, and I accept absolutely that our work needs to be on permitting and ensuring that we’re getting trees that companies are able to use,” he said.
It was pointed out that while the province’s current mandate is to ensure a sustainable land base to enable the harvest of 45-million cubic metres of timber per year on Crown land, the current harvest is far less than that.
Eby responded that much of that designated timber can’t be used due to the low prices for fibre currently, and the high cost to cut down the trees, particularly in regards to transporting them to mills which are often far away, which makes it uneconomical.
“The pulp prices faced by Domtar when they ship to Asia are so low that they can’t put gas in the trucks to get the trees to the mills that are available on Vancouver Island,” he said.
“These are structural challenges that we have to address and it will require a restructuring and a revisioning of the forest sector.”
Eby said this is a conversation that forest companies are more willing to engage in now, but none of that is going to take the place of what is needed, which is an agreement with the United States.
“If we can get a softwood agreement with the United States, get some stabilization there, it’ll be transformative for the industry,” he said.
“It’ll take huge pressure off. But right now, it’s quite a catastrophic scenario from every direction.”
But Eby said he wants to be clear that, wherever it’s possible for his government to try to assist forest companies in continuing to operate and identifying new markets that may be able to pay a higher premium than the products that they’re producing right now, the province will continue to do the work to find a way for the forestry sector to be able to provide sustainable jobs going forward.
As for what the province can do to help the workers at the Crofton mill specifically as they face an uncertain future, Eby said the government has supports and training opportunities that it intends to bring to the table to help the workers, and the federal government has a role to play as well.
“We need to ensure that these workers are supported, and we’ll make sure that that’s the case,” he said.
“Our first step, though, will be to examine whether there is any possibility of finding a path to keep this facility operating in some fashion.”