KELOWNA — Prime Minister Mark Carney’s government is preparing financial supports for the forestry sector as the United States ratchets up duties on Canadian softwood lumber.
Carney is promising an aid package for the industry that includes $700 million in loan guarantees and $500 million for long-term supports to help companies diversify export markets and develop their products.
It comes amid heightened trade tensions with the United States over softwood lumber, a decades-long friction point in the Canada-U.S. trade relationship.
The U.S. Commerce Department recently announced it intends to hike anti-dumping duties on Canadian softwood to just over 20 per cent.
That’s a marked increase since the last time the United States reviewed the rate, which previously was just over seven per cent.
The prime minister outlined a series of supports at a lumber mill in West Kelowna, B.C., on Tuesday, saying Canada will be its own best customer by relying on more Canadian timber as it works to double the pace of new home building to almost 500,000 homes a year over the next decade.
“That alone could double the use of Canadian softwood lumber in new residential construction, an increase of almost two billion board feet, and double demand for structural panels, an increase of nearly one billion square feet,” he said.
Carney also said the government will launch a build-Canada homes program this fall that gets Canada back in the business of building affordable homes, using Canadian technology, workers and lumber.
He said the government will introduce a training program as well for “up-skilling and re-skilling” workers, which will include $50 million for those in the forestry sector.
“At this hinge moment in history, Canada is starting to shift from reliance to resilience,” Carney said. “Together we are going to write our own story, rather than let others dictate theirs to us.
“We are building one Canadian economy instead of 13,” he said, referring to the number of provincial and territorial jurisdictions in Canada.
This report by The Canadian Press was first published Aug. 5, 2025.
Wolfgang Depner, The Canadian Press
