Federal government pledges $867M to help lumber sector’s tariff woes

Natural Resources Minister Jim Carr has announced $867 million in financial support to help lumber producers and employees weather the impact of punishing new U.S. tariffs on Canadian softwood exports.

The package announced Thursday includes $605 million in loans and loan guarantees to help cushion the blow for forestry companies and to help them explore new markets and innovations. There is also $260 million over the next three years to expand existing programs to help diversify the market base for lumber products, allow the indigenous forestry sector to explore new initiatives and extend work-sharing agreement limits to minimize layoffs.

Carr said the package isn’t just about responding to the U.S. tariffs but to position Canada’s industry for the future. “Our government recognizes the importance of finding new markets for our forest products,” he said at a news conference where he was flanked by Foreign Affairs Minister Chrystia Freeland and International Trade Minister Francois-Philippe Champagne. “By diversifying into a variety of markets, we will be less vulnerable to actions from any one market ...”

The loans and loan guarantees come from the Export Development Bank of Canada and the Business Development Bank of Canada to help with things such as building up inventory or improve operational efficiencies.

The package also includes $80 million to support workers who want to upgrade skills and move to a different industry and almost $10 million to extend an EI work-sharing program that subsidizes the wages of eligible workers who go on reduced hours in order to prevent layoffs. Another $10 million over three years is available for the Indigenous Forestry Initiative to encourage participation in the forest sector.

On April 28, the U.S. imposed countervailing import duties as high as 24 per cent on Canadian softwood, arguing Canada unfairly subsidizes its industry by keeping the cost of logging artificially low. The rates are likely to go up after June 9, when the U.S. will decide whether to also impose antidumping duties.

The U.S. Lumber Coalition, which brought the complaint that triggered the duties, criticized the package as another subsidy.