Hundreds to lose jobs as Canfor closes two major sawmills in Northern BC

Canfor has announced that it will be closing two major sawmills in Northern British Columbia by the end of the year, one in Fort St. John, and the other in Vanderhoof.The closures will impact nearly 500 employees and remove 670 million board feet of production capacity per year from the company's BC operations."Our company has proudly operated in BC for more than 85 years, supporting jobs and economic activity in communities around this province," CEO Don Kayne wrote in a press release. "During that time, we have always been prepared to manage through challenging times and market fluctuations, recognizing the cyclical nature of our business."He went on to explain, however, that, "in recent years, increasing regulatory complexity, high operating costs and the inability to reliably access economically viable timber to support our manufacturing facilities has resulted in hundreds of millions of dollars of losses in our BC operations."Kayne said the straw that broke the camel's back was the set of punitive tariffs announced by the United States in August 2024 which are expected to double in 2025. He claimed that, "continuing to operate under these conditions would prolong the punishing anti-dumping duties and put additional operations at risk.""We are devastated by the decline in our province's foundational forest industry," Kayne added, lamenting the impact they will have not only on employees and their families, but First Nations partners, contractors, suppliers, communities, and customers as well.He vowed to support those affected by the move, and continue to "advocate for changes that will allow our industry in BC to once again be able to thrive in the future.".In a post on X, Conservative Prince George-Peace River-Northern Rockies MP Bob Zimmer called the closures "a huge loss" for the community."Another lost mill in BC because of the radical policies of Justin Trudeau and David Eby," he lamented, pointing out that since 2016, 24 mills have been closed.