New Brunswick wootlot owners are hoping against hope for a quick resolution to the softwood lumber tariffs that have been imposed on exports to the U.S. from New Brunswick.
The president of the New Brunswick Federation of Woodlot Owners, Rick Doucet, says what is happening already is that the mills pay less to the wood producers.
“Which has happened already in New Brunswick when the original duties were announced but our main concern is that first of all, the mills survive and then our other concern is that our contracters survive,” says Doucet.
Doucet is worried because when they’ve had this kind of financial pressure in the past, a lot of woodlot owners just got out of the business altogether.
“We just sort of made a recovery from that situation and it’s pretty tenuous right now.”
The Atlantic regional council chair for Unifor Ian Hutchison, who also works in the industry, says there’s some smaller sites in N.B. that have either announced they’re cutting back or not even starting up at all.
“We want the government to know that we’re behind them, we appreciate what they’ve done to offer the forestry industry…but we’re still pushing that a fair deal has to be made and it has to be done sooner than later,” says Hutchison.
“We knew when the deal ended a year and a half ago that this was going to come, and when they didn’t get the deal made in the one year period where there would be no duties made we knew there was going to be duties. So we’ve been pushing the government to try and get a fair deal that works for everyone.”
Hutchison says if this was a short term thing you could probably ride out the wave but they don’t see this ending quickly.
