New Brunswick woodlot owners are preparing for another round of tariffs from the United States as they continue to grapple with high costs and low revenue. Rick Doucett, president of the New Brunswick Federation of Woodlot Owners, said wood producers in the province are struggling. “We’ve been under a tariff regime in New Brunswick since 2016,” he told CTV News Atlantic’s Todd Battis. “It’s a cumulative effect.” Last year the U.S. government imposed hefty duties on numerous Canadian products, including lumber. Earlier this week President Donald Trump announced a new 50 per cent tariff on many Canadian goods. “There have been fairly high job losses in New Brunswick already,” Doucett said. “We’re in a bit of a steep nosedive and I don’t know if we’ll be able to pull out of it.” Doucett said the tariffs have exacerbated ongoing revenue issues for the wood industry, which is already dealing with high fuel costs. “We’re getting paid the same for wood as we were in 2000,” he said. “If you’re living on revenue from 26 years ago with 2026 expenses, the math is not going to work for you. “Unless we do something fairly radical here, we’re going to lose a lot our capacity to harvest wood and move it to market.” Doucett is calling on the provincial government to develop a broader forestry strategy that will allow the industry to withstand the tariffs. “We have to diversify what we do but it’s really hard to turn a ship around in the middle of a storm,” he said. With files from CTV News staff For more New Brunswick news, visit our dedicated provincial page.
