Prime Minister Mark Carney vowed to use Canadian lumber to build homes and provide financial supports for the forestry sector as the U.S. hikes duties on the softwood industry.
“We will be our own best customer by relying on more Canadian lumber for Canadian projects,” Carney said at the announcement held a manufacturing mill in West Kelowna, B.C., Tuesday.
The sector has been a longstanding target of the U.S., which recently raised anti-dumping duties on Canadian softwood. B.C. Forests Minister Ravi Parmar described the hit as a “gut punch” for the province’s forestry industry which has seen thousands of workers laid off over the last few years.
Carney called the duties “unjustified” while promising to move the industry away from its dependence on the U.S. market.
“This dependence creates costly uncertainty,” he said from the Gorman Bros. Lumber Ltd. mill.
“It weakens our industry’s ability to weather downturns. It makes lumber more expensive.”
Prime Minister Mark Carney announced new supports for Canada’s lumber industry on Tuesday, including providing up to $700 million in loan guarantees and investing $500 million to make the sector more competitive.
The prime minister unveiled a suite of new measures Tuesday that he promised would help the industry serve a growing Canadian market “and those of new, reliable trading partners around the world.”
Carney said his government will use Canadian lumber and workers as part of its promise to build affordable homes. The Build Canada Homes program, promised during the election campaign, will launch this fall and provide up to $25 billion in financing to private sector home builders.
“We are going to write our own story rather than letting others dictate theirs to us,” he said.
Carney also announced up to $700 million in loan guarantees for forestry companies and $500 million, largely in grants and contributions, to spur product development and market diversification for the hard-hit industry and millions for reskilling lumber workers.
