CANADA (From news reports) -- A federal task force announced earlier this month will attempt to save Canada's stricken forest industry from further decline through product and market diversification.

While the support will no doubt be welcomed by the industry, in B.C. the more immediate need is access to timber.

Canada's forestry sector has been pummeled by a one-two punch of low lumber prices, and American tariffs and duties on softwood lumber.

The situation is particularly dire in B.C, where an integrated industry of lumber, remanufacturing, pulp and pellet mills has been collapsing like a row of dominos.

In 2025 alone, B.C. lost three major operations: the Crofton pulp mill on Vancouver Island, the West Fraser sawmill in 100 Mile House and a Drax pellet mill in Williams Lake.

Since 2022, 15,000 forest sector jobs have been lost, according to the Council of Forest Industries (COFI), and since 2023 there have been 21 permanent or indefinite mill closures.

On the B.C. coast, 10 mills have permanently closed since 2018, resulting in 5,800 job losses, said Peter Lister, executive director for the Truck Loggers Association.

Pulp mill closures are particularly devastating to local economies, as they provide high-paying jobs and provide millions in industrial taxes.

The Municipality of North Cowichan lost 370 direct high-paying jobs as a result of the Crofton mill's closure, and this year the district expects to lose $800,000 in industrial taxes, said North Cowichan Mayor Rob Douglas.

The industry is in crisis, a number of speakers said at the Truck Loggers Association convention, which ran Jan. 14-16.

"I've been doing this for 39 years," said Tracey Russell, vice-president of equipment for Inland Truck & Equipment. "This is the most challenging time we have ever faced in British Columbia."

Premier David Eby has blamed American tariffs and duties, and low lumber prices for the closures.

And while they are contributing factors, the more fundamental cause of the collapse of B.C.'s integrated forest sector is a lack of timber.

"A lot of our problems are structural, made-in-B.C. problems," Lister said. "Lack of fibre was the reason Crofton closed down."

On paper, B.C. has an annual allowable cut (ACC) of 60 million cubic metres. The actual cut has been about half that for the last two years.

Policies introduced by the NDP government--including a moratorium on logging old growth and new eco-system based land management--have contributed to driving up the cost of harvesting and lengthening the time it takes to get cutting permits.

B.C.'s forest industry is highly integrated, with pulp mills dependent on sawmill waste.

But so many sawmills have closed that the few pulp mills remaining in B.C. have had to resort more and more to pulp logs, which is more costly, and even imports of wood chips.

"The concerns around fibre supply are genuine," said Leonard Krog, a former NDP MLA and current mayor of Nanaimo, where Harmac is one of the few pulp mills still operating in B.C.

"They're importing a significant portion of their [wood chip] supply currently from the United States, for God's sake, which, as a British Columbian, I find both ridiculous, repugnant and, more importantly, unnecessary."

Last year, Eby handed Forests Minister Ravi Parmar the task of getting the annual harvest up to 45 million cubic hectares.

Parmar was tasked with reforming BC Timber Sales and expanding community forests to increase timely access to fibre.

"Some of those goals we hit," Parmar said at the recent Truck Loggers convention. "For some, we aren't there yet."

Indeed, the actual cut in 2024 and 2025 was around 32 million cubic metres, not 45 million.

Parmar said he is working on a plan to eliminate permitting altogether.

"My plans will include transitioning us away from cutting permit forestry to full operational planning forestry," he said.

"I see a future where we have no need for cutting permits in forestry here in British Columbia."

But the reforms will take time, and the forest sector can expect to continue to face another challenging year ahead.

"I think 2026 is going to be another tough year for forestry in British Columbia," Parmar said.

At last week's BC Resources Forum, Premier David Eby--fresh off the plane from a trade mission to India--said his government is working to increase markets for B.C. wood products there, as well as China.

"It always feels too slow for the urgency of the crisis facing the sector right now," Eby said of the reforms his government is working on.

"But predictable land access, permit reform, value-added investments and new trading relationships will deliver a better forestry future."