BC Forestry’s Unravelling: Mill Closures, Fibre Shortages, and a Restoration Sector Running Out of Forest to Restore

Another mill has fallen

WFCA warns that BC’s forest restoration economy being hollowed out from the inside

Mills fall across the province—from Crofton to Prince George --  and now Howe Sound

Updated Lead — August 21, 2026

Domtar announced yesterday that the Howe Sound pulp mill and its Bayview Fibre chipping facility on the Sunshine Coast will be indefinitely idled — wiping out another 400 jobs. Poor pulp prices, reduced demand, and the now‑familiar shortage of affordable fibre were cited as the cause, adding yet another domino to a manufacturing collapse already stretching from Crofton to Prince George.

For communities along the coast, the Howe Sound shutdown lands like a fresh fracture in a sector already buckling under cumulative pressures — volatile markets, shrinking fibre, wildfire damage, regulatory delays, and duties that never seem to go away. It tightens the squeeze on the restoration economy, the contractors who depend on mills to buy low‑value fibre, and the workers who have already watched too many gates lock behind them.

As mills fall across the province—from Crofton and 100 Mile House (Dec 2025) to Prince George (Summer 2026)—the WFCA warns that BC’s forest restoration economy is being hollowed out from the inside.

British Columbia’s forestry sector is experiencing a collapse so broad and persistent that calling it a “downturn” feels like an act of optimism. Mill closures are now appearing in every region: Vancouver Island, the Interior, and the North. Each shutdown is another domino falling, and the chain reaction is beginning to threaten not just manufacturing, but the businesses responsible for restoring BC’s forests.

The Crofton pulp mill closure in December 2025 eliminated around 350 jobs. Domtar cited poor pulp pricing and limited access to affordable fibre — a phrase that has become shorthand for the pressures facing BC’s forest sector. The company acknowledged the hardship for employees, the Cowichan Valley community, business partners, and the coastal forest sector, while noting it would explore future options for the site.

BC Forests Minister Ravi Parmar called the closure “gut‑wrenching,” pointing to volatile markets, low pulp prices, shrinking fibre, climate‑driven wildfires, conservation measures, and U.S. duties and tariffs. The Opposition Conservatives demanded Parmar’s resignation, arguing the coastal forest sector is collapsing. In BC politics, forestry is one of the few topics where all parties agree the situation is serious — they simply disagree on the cause.

Crofton’s shutdown followed West Fraser Timber’s announcement that it was  permanently closing its 100 Mile House lumber mill at the end of 2025, cutting 165 jobs. 

And now, the closure of Canfor’s Northwood Pulp Mill in Prince George sent shockwaves through the restoration sector. The Western Forestry Contractors’ Association (WFCA) — the businesses that plant trees, thin forests, reduce wildfire fuel, and restore damaged landscapes — warns that the loss of manufacturing capacity is undermining the restoration economy.

WFCA executive director Jeff Lutes describes the closures as “another domino in the manufacturing capacity falling,” a trend that threatens BC’s ability to restore forests at scale. Restoration work produces low‑value fibre — including deadfall, small‑diameter logs, wildfire debris — that mills historically purchased and processed. Without mills, that fibre becomes waste. And without revenue from fibre sales, restoration projects become financially impossible unless heavily subsidized.

BC once planted 240–260 million trees annually until 2018, then surged past 300 million between 2020 and 2024. But this year, planting has dropped to around 230 million, largely because less land is being harvested. Fewer logs mean fewer residuals, fewer replanting obligations, and fewer contracts for restoration crews. The WFCA warns that wildfire recovery alone could require double or triple current reforestation funding if catastrophic fires continue.

Contractors are now hesitating to invest in new machinery or retrain workers. Why buy a $500,000 mulcher when the fibre it produces has nowhere to go? Why recruit new planters when the land base is shrinking? Why expand capacity when cutting permits and road‑building approvals can take months — or years?

Industry leaders echo the frustration. Kim Haakstad, president of the BC Council of Forest Industries, says the consequences of government inaction are unfolding in real time. While softwood lumber duties add pressure, she argues that not everything can be blamed on trade disputes. The core issues are predictable wood supply and a competitive regulatory environment. Without those, mills close — and once they close, they rarely reopen.

Parmar noted that the Crofton mill “has anchored Vancouver Island’s economy for generations.” Its loss will affect workers, contractors, truckers, loggers, and local businesses — especially heading into the holidays. The minister pledged to explore opportunities to preserve forestry jobs. But BC’s forestry professionals have heard similar promises before, and many are quietly asking whether the profession still has a future in the province.

The pressures on BC’s forestry sector are cumulative: shrinking fibre supply due to past over‑cutting, wildfires, and beetle infestations; trade pressures from U.S. duties and tariffs; regulatory delays that make harvesting unpredictable; market shifts reducing demand for pulp and paper; and political indecision that leaves industry without a clear path forward.

For the WFCA, the stakes are structural. Without mills, restoration becomes a theoretical exercise. Without fibre buyers, thinning becomes unaffordable. Without a stable land base, tree planting becomes sporadic. And without a functioning forest economy, the next generation of forestry professionals may decide BC is no longer the place to practice their craft.

The Biomass That Got Away

As BC’s forestry sector continues to contract, one missed opportunity looms large: biomass. Not the hypothetical version, but the real material — deadfall, slash piles, windthrow, beetle kill, and wildfire debris that accumulate across the province.

For years, scientists, contractors, and policy analysts have noted that BC holds one of the largest untapped biomass reserves in North America. Other jurisdictions — Scandinavia, the Baltics, parts of the U.S. — built biomass industries out of far less material. BC, meanwhile, has struggled to convert this resource into a stable energy or economic sector.

The irony is clear: mills close because they “can’t access affordable fibre,” while millions of tonnes of usable biomass sit in the forest. Restoration crews generate biomass daily — thinning stands, reducing wildfire fuel, cleaning up post‑fire landscapes — and in a more coordinated system, that material could support a renewable energy industry. Instead, it often ends up in piles awaiting disposal.

A biomass industry could have cushioned the blow of mill closures, diversified rural economies, and given restoration contractors a stable market for the fibre they produce. It could have turned deadfall into paycheques, slash piles into energy security, and wildfire debris into climate‑friendly fuel. Instead, BC has spent decades debating permits, regulatory bottlenecks, and land‑use plans while the raw material for a renewable energy sector remains underused.

A province with this much fibre shouldn’t be running out of options. Yet here we are — staring at the biomass that got away, still waiting for someone to recognize that the solution has been lying on the forest floor the whole time.

Written by CoPilot Directed by Mack McColl Published by McColl Magazine Commerce News

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