Canadian Forestry Industry Faces Major Headwinds Through the 3rd Quarter of 2020

According to Derek Nighbor, president – CEO of the Forest Products Association of Canada (FPAC), which represents Canada’s wood, pulp, paper, and wood bio-products manufacturers, a $73-billion industry employing 230,000 in northern and rural communities, the crash of lumber prices, the pandemic which has brought to the North American economy, coupled with the painful softwood lumber tariffs over the last 2-years have many industry players facing a ‘brutal’ financial situation over the next two quarters. Nighbor appeared as a witness before the House of Commons Standing Committee on Finance on April 17 to lay out the landscape of what the industry is experiencing. Nighbor called sawmills the “heartbeat” of a highly integrated sector that feeds pulp and paper mills. He noted that the current toilet paper shortage is the direct result of sawmills running curtailed production or being shutdown altogether. No chips – no paper products.