Canfor to Close Its Plateau and Fort St. John Sawmills in Northern British Columbia

On Wednesday, Canfor announced that following a thorough review of operating conditions, including the persistent challenge accessing economic fiber, ongoing financial losses, weak lumber markets, and increased US tariffs, it will be closing its Plateau and Fort St. John operations in northern British Columbia.

These closures will impact approximately 500 employees and will remove 670 million board feet of annual production capacity from the company’s BC operations.

Canfor President and CEO Don Kayne issued the following statement:

“Our company has proudly operated in BC for more than 85 years, supporting jobs and economic activity in communities around this province. During that time, we have always been prepared to manage through challenging times and market fluctuations, recognizing the cyclical nature of our business. However, in recent years, increasing regulatory complexity, high operating costs, and the inability to reliably access economically viable timber to support our manufacturing facilities has resulted in hundreds of millions of dollars of losses in our BC operations.

The operating challenges we face have been further exacerbated by increases in the punitive US tariffs announced on August 13th—tariffs that are expected to more than double again next year. Continuing to operate under these conditions would prolong the punishing anti-dumping duties and put additional operations at risk. As a result, we are making the incredibly difficult decision to close our operations in Vanderhoof and Fort St. John.

We are devastated by the decline in our province’s foundational forest industry, and we recognize the impact these closures will have on our employees and their families, as well as our First Nations partners, contractors, suppliers, communities, and customers. We are committed to supporting our employees and will work with our union partners on an employee transition plan, including severance. The wind down of operations is expected to be complete by the end of the year.

With the dramatic reduction in available timber supply, we will explore opportunities to divest some of our northern BC tenure, which may help support other BC forest companies facing the same significant challenges in accessing economic fiber.

Finally, we will continue to do all we can to advocate for changes that will allow our industry in BC to once again be able to thrive in the future.”