Union says B.C. mill closure leaves workers 'reeling,' as industry woes persist

Workers sort lumber at the Gorman Brothers Lumber sawmill, in West Kelowna, B.C., on Tuesday, Aug. 5, 2025. THE CANADIAN PRESS/Darryl Dyck

The union representing most of the 300 employees who will lose their jobs with the impending closure of Canfor’s Northwood Pulp Mill near Prince George, B.C., says people are reeling from the latest blow to an already battered industry.

Unifor’s western regional director Gavin McGarrigle said Wednesday that the loss of so many jobs in a community the size of Prince George, population 67,000, can have cascading social and economic impacts.

“First of all, the pulp mills are fed by sawmills, so there’s jobs that will be lost in the sawmills … Then you have all of the contractors that are associated with those facilities,” he said.

“Then you have to ask what is the market for getting logs to pulp mills when you don’t have a close pulp mill anywhere nearby? That just increases the problems, the access, and all the travel costs that everyone’s been talking about.

“Then you have workers, skilled workers in many cases, who are in high demand in other industries who have to put food on the table. They turn up and leave.”

Canfor said in statement announcing the closure on Tuesday that “substantial additional pulp production capacity has come online globally” leading to a reduction in global pulp prices.

“Combined with the persistent challenges accessing fibre, these factors have resulted in a prolonged period of unsustainable financial losses for Canfor Pulp,” the statement said, adding that Northwood is expected to close later this year following a wind-down process.

Last year, three major timber operations closed in British Columbia — the Crofton pulp mill on Vancouver Island, West Fraser sawmill in 100 Mile House and a Drax pellet mill in Williams Lake.

The BC Council of Forest Industries says that since 2023, 21 B.C. lumber mills have closed permanently or indefinitely. The group says that by the first quarter of 2026, the province’s forest sector had lost approximately 15,000 jobs since 2022.

Prince George Mayor Simon Yu said in an interview Wednesday that he has been fielding calls from people expressing their sympathy since the closure was announced.

He said his community is resilient and he’s hopeful the workers will find new local jobs.

“I’m an optimist in terms of when I look at Prince George and the forestry industry as a whole. But right now we’re hitting the bottom. Hopefully this is the bottom, and we go upward from now,” he said.

McGarrigle said workers need “real answers” from the provincial and federal government about what it is going to do to support the struggling industry and its workers in the short term.

“Governments, really at both levels, are focused on diversification and medium and long-term shoring up the sector. But what we’ve been saying, we’ve been saying it consistently, is what about the workers that are going to be facing pink slips? It’s not their fault. What about the communities that are going to be impacted? It’s not their fault,” he said.

He said local and national union representatives will be meeting with the provincial forest ministry to discuss what can be done.

“We ask the government and everyone to step back and say what is the plan for operating pulp mills in this province? I mean, Prince George is a foundation of forestry. Forestry is a foundation of British Columbia,” he said.

“So, what is the plan? You know, do we need to look at some sort of government intervention? Do we need to somehow figure out a way to keep these lights on? I think it’s too early to say exactly what that looks like.”

He said Canfor has moved many of its assets to U.S. and Europe in recent years.

“At what point does a company that started here, grew up here, says it’s Canadian, have an obligation to Canada? And I think that’s a bigger question that government needs to address,” he said.

Yu said he would like to see the federal government have a ministry dedicated specifically to forestry, and for provincial officials to move from Victoria to Prince George “where the action is.”

“Most importantly, I would like all levels of government, including the multiple small municipal governments that have sawmills in their town, to get together to formulate a long-term strategy,” he said.

Yu said the area’s annual allowable cut has drastically reduced from 100 million cubic metres to barely over 30 million cubic metres.

“That volume is not sustainable. We also have to advocate to other levels of government to understand the global competition is upon us,” he said.

Earlier this year the federal government released a final report from a task force looking for ways to “transform” the forest sector.

It made multiple recommendations, warning that it faces “an existential risk” without “immediate, co-ordinated, and decisive action.”

In a statement Wednesday, the Opposition B.C. Conservatives said policies from the provincial government have made it harder to keep mills open.

“Excessive environmental regulations, shifting definitions of old growth, third-party agreements cutting into profitability, punitive stumpage fees, endless permitting delays and uncertainty around land claims have driven up costs and pushed investment out of B.C.,” it said.

In Ottawa, the federal Conservatives also issued a statement saying the closure highlighted Prime Minister Mark Carney’s failure to secure a lumber deal with the United States.

B.C. Forests Minister Ravi Parmar said in a statement on Tuesday that the Northwood mill closure was “heartbreaking.”

He said the government would be “leaning on our federal government partners, through the recently signed Canada-British Columbia Co-operative Prosperity Agreement, to help support the transition the forestry sector is facing in the Prince George region.”

This report by Ashley Joannou, The Canadian Press, was first published July 15, 2026