With U.S. tariffs now in effect, businesses in B.C.‘s Fraser Valley ranging from forestry mills to independent retailers are bracing for the new reality.
In Maple Ridge, at the industry’s largest western red cedar roofing mill – the hope is the feds can work out a deal.
“Definitely we need negotiations,” Curtis Walker, a Waldun Group director told CTV News in Maple Ridge on Tuesday. “The threats I don’t think are going to work with the current leadership in Washington. I think we need to negotiate and come up with a good deal for Canada.”
The Waldun Group says it will do everything to protect jobs at the Maple Ridge facility but admits provincial government restrictions on harvesting old-growth forests have caused major challenges, even before the punishing tariffs were imposed.
“For the forest industry, the layoffs are inevitable to some degree,” Walker said. “The fibre supply has been cut for the forest industry, that’s the biggest problem. The tariffs are compounding. That’s just thrown on top of all of the difficulties we have as a forest industry.”
In nearby Mission, the mayor says its municipal forest department could also end up hurting.
That community has used funds from its tree farm licence to pay for things like a CT scanner at Mission Memorial Hospital.
“We do not rely on forestry as a core funding source in our community because it is so variable,” Paul Horn told CTV News Tuesday. “We take the money we extract from forestry and we put it in what we call a legacy reserve that we use for major projects.”
Small businesses are also preparing for the worst.
That includes at PressLand General in Mission – a store that sells an eclectic mix of goods ranging from local apothecary products to skateboards.
“The retail store will greatly be affected because of all the U.S. brands that we carry here,” President Jason Matte said. “So, all of those small business brands will no longer be carried by PressLand General. We’ll be focusing on Canadian-made in our store.”
Matte said he expects to replace many products with Canadian alternatives – and he’s hoping the fact his business already focuses on selling local will offer some protection.
But ultimately, from large forest companies to small businesses – the hope is that this trade war can come to an end as quickly as possible.
