New Brunswick Woodlot Owners Want Changes in Crown Log Pricing

According to Rick Doucett, the president of the New Brunswick Federation of Woodlot Owners, the royalties paid to woodlot owners for raw materials have not increased during the pandemic even as the price of finished lumber has gone up. “The expectation”, Doucett said, “[is] when you [see] the price of lumber increase to that amount, you would see a corresponding increase in price of roundwood, which is used to make that particular lumber.” The issue in New Brunswick is that the price paid by mills is determined by how much lumber they have in lumber yards. They can get a lot of lumber from Crown land, and Doucett says the province is not selling that wood at a competitive price, which hurts woodlot owners. To address this and other issues Doucett and his group is calling for broad changes in how Crown logs are sold and priced.