Canfor Shutting Two Northern BC Sawmills Affecting 500 Staff, Blames US Tariffs

Canfor Corp. has announced it is shutting two northern British Columbia sawmills in a move it says will affect about 500 workers, partly blaming “punitive” U.S. tariffs imposed last month. It said in a statement Wednesday that shutting the Plateau mill in Vanderhoof and its Fort St. John operation would also remove 670 million board feet of annual production capacity. The company blamed the closures on the challenge of accessing economically viable timber, as well as ongoing financial losses and weak lumber markets, but said the final blow was the big increase in U.S. tariffs. President and CEO Don Kayne said in a statement that Canfor’s B.C. operations had lost “hundreds of millions of dollars” in recent years, something he also connected to “increasing regulatory complexity.”...