N.B. wood producers association worries about looming closures

Lumber in New Brunswick is pictured. (Laura Brown/CTV News Atlantic)

The general manager of a wood producers association in western New Brunswick says subsidies and government-backed loans are not the way to support the lumber industry.

Prime Minister Mark Carney announced Wednesday a $500-million increase to the previously announced Softwood Lumber Development Program, which gives companies access to government-backed loans, totalling $1.2 billion.

He also said Ottawa is working with railway companies to cut freight rates when transporting Canadian lumber across the country by 50 per cent.

It comes as the industry has been battling a 45 per cent tariff imposed by U.S. President Donald Trump.

But Linda Bell, general manager of the Carleton-Victoria Wood Producers and Forest Products Marketing Board, says subsidies got the industry into hot water with the U.S. in the first place.

“The U.S. Lumber Coalition has complained that the lumber in Canada is subsidized. And instead of fixing that problem, it just seems like they turn to more subsidies, which is only going to make it worse,” she said. “The big thing that we were concerned about is this rail subsidy, which actually could harm us because the wood from B.C., as an example, they think that this is great for them because they’ll be able to ship lumber east on the rails much cheaper than they have been able to. That comes into our markets, and we don’t even have access to rail.”

Bell says a deal is needed, a sentiment echoed by Natural Resources Minister John Herron.

“Clearly this is not a sustainable model going forward. We need a negotiated settlement between our federal and U.S. counterparts,” he told reporters on Nov. 19.

At the time, Herron said the industry has been weathering the storm so far. But Bell says cracks are starting to show, which she believes has resulted in job losses.

“I mean, a lot of probably our older people have just decided to be done,” she said. “The others are still trying to work to make payments and to have a job, but I’m not sure how much longer, you know, this is going to go.”

Woodland Pulp in Baileyville, Maine, just across the border from New Brunswick’s Charlotte County, stopped accepting Canadian lumber in October because of the tariffs.

Two weeks ago, operators announced the mill would “pause” operations from late November to Dec. 17. The company said 144 workers would be laid off temporarily.

Bell says losing that market has been a challenge. She also said the Twin Rivers Edmundston mill is “closing indefinitely.”

But Twin Rivers executives said that’s absolutely not true.

Caryn King, vice president of strategic marketing for the company, said all operations are running “full,” which means they need to manage the inventory they have before accepting more.

“The company manages its inventory of fibre input, including pulpwood and chips, for its Edmundston pulp mill on an ongoing basis and in doing so will from time-to-time change its shipment receiving schedule from long-time partners and suppliers as space and inventory dictates,” she said in a statement to CTV News Atlantic.

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