Skip to content
Join our Newsletter

Squamish grappling with softwood lumber duties

On Aug. 10, Bill LeDuke, an electrician with International Forest Products Ltd.’s Squamish Lumber Division, was walking by the mill manager’s office when he got the news a 19.

On Aug. 10, Bill LeDuke, an electrician with International Forest Products Ltd.’s Squamish Lumber Division, was walking by the mill manager’s office when he got the news a 19.3 per cent export tariff had been slapped on Canadian softwood lumber bound for the United States.

"That’s 5 per cent more than our worst fears!" the distressed mill manager said coming out of his office.

LeDuke, who has lived with his family in Squamish and worked at the mill for 12 years, remembers his immediate reaction: "I’m going to have to get a job next week."

The sawmill limped along, finishing off orders. Then, on Oct. 1, management shut the plant down a few minutes early and called everyone together. Employees were told that at the end of the week the plant would be closed for two weeks minimum.

On Wednesday, Oct. 31, the United States Department of Commerce imposed punitive anti-dumping duties on top of the 19.3 per cent duty, bringing the total some B.C. sawmills will pay on softwood lumber exports to almost 40 per cent.

People who work in the forest industry in Squamish have been hit by hard times before but nothing may compare to the current crisis in the B.C. sawmilling sector.

"It’s unprecedented!" Ron Sander, manager of Squamish Mills, said sharply.

Interfor’s Squamish Mills Division, which produces western red cedar and Douglas fir products, will have to pay duties totalling 32 per cent.

Canadian softwood lumber products are favoured across the U.S. for construction and home building purposes because of the quality of the wood. But American producers believe the Canadian softwood lumber industry is subsidized and imposed the 19.3 per cent duty as a penalty for that subsidization. They feel the structural component of Canadian softwood is subsidized largely because in B.C. the lands are owned by the Crown and that there’s some benefit derived from owning that land.

"It’s a little disappointing to us, to say it politely," remarks Sander, "because 75 per cent of the wood we cut here is western red cedar, and that’s not a structural wood."

Of the total amount of softwood lumber exported from Canada, producers in B.C. account for about 50 per cent. The export duties mean that in B.C. as many as 30,000 sawmill workers may be out of work by Christmas, if the softwood lumber issue is not resolved.

On Saturday, Nov. 10, I drove to Squamish to see how people are coping with this setback in the forest industry. Like most people, I am overwhelmed by the scenery. Strong outflow winds churn up the cobalt blue waters of Howe Sound, creating the kind of wild beauty the region is famous for.

But in Squamish this beauty is tempered by economic reality. There’s an office-for-rent sign in a medical-professional building and several cafe windows have been papered up. One shopping plaza parking lot is only half full and open businesses look wounded by a large vacated men’s store with a sign in the window advertising commercial space for lease.

The closure of the sawmill has hurt families, but not the sense of pride people take in the community. Louise Bennette is busy polishing a plaque in Stan Clarke Park for Remembrance Day ceremonies on Nov. 11.

"All businesses buy wreaths and lay them at the cenotaph," she tells me.

Bennette has been commuting to work in Vancouver for 10 years, but she remains loyal to Squamish.

"I have a husband here and, I do all my shopping in Squamish," she says.

Maurice Freitage and Carrie McEachern are young parents who have lived in Squamish for six years. Freitage is a sub-contractor who works in West Vancouver and Whistler.

"A good group of friends and a good foundation that has young children is what we like about Squamish," McEachern says.

The cost of living and all the outdoor activities help keep them here and Freitage is excited about the possibility of a university being built near Squamish.

Somewhere in the distance a train whistle blows, reminding me of the town’s close ties to resource-based industries, while overhead a flock of geese fly low, also reminding me of the closeness to nature.

At the Visitor Information Centre on Cleveland Avenue, Anne Barnes, a part-time tourist information councillor, is busy talking to Jason Weir about things to do in Squamish. He’s an ornithologist and is asking about eagles.

"You probably will see quite a few," Barnes tells him.

"What about the salmon?" he asks.

Barnes pulls out a brochure and directs him to a fish hatchery.

Outside the Information Centre, Weir tells me he and his wife have come up to Squamish from Vancouver to look for eagles and see the salmon.

"It’s a great place!" Weir says excitedly. "I’ve been to Garibaldi Park and found a Boreal owl."

A Boreal owl is quite a rare sighting. There are only four or five breeding records of this species in B.C. and this is the first breeding record for the Coast Mountains.

Further up Cleveland Avenue at Mostly Books, owner Jane Moloughney divides her time between the front counter and helping customers. She too has felt the impact of jobs lost because of the softwood lumber duties but, she’s seen it before.

"People will make the best of the situation until Christmas," she suggests. "Then reality will set in."

Moloughney lives in Lions Bay and has been in business in Squamish for a long time.

"We are steady because when people can’t afford to do anything else they read," she tells me. "People still come here to hike, to see the mountains, and just to look at the beauty."

As I leave the book store and continue up Cleveland Avenue, I watch an eagle in the distance circling above the Squamish River. I wonder at the power of Nature that draws people to Squamish like a magnet. Some people I meet today talk about the terrorist attacks on Sept. 11 that has affected tourism. The sawmill shut down only makes business more difficult.

"We’re not losing that much local business," Kurt Ebert, proprietor of Quinn’s Restaurant & Pastisserie says. "People want good paying jobs."

Dave Fenn, owner of the Howe Sound Inn and Brewing Company, also feels the effects of the sawmill shut down.

"The loss of jobs locally has an impact on people going out," he says.

Fenn is experiencing a lack of conference business and has had to down size by 40 per cent.

"I work all the bar shifts," he says. "That’s just the reality of it."

Up Highway 99, Robert Forsyth, sells automotive supplies and industrial equipment for Triton Automotive & Industrial Ltd. He says almost every customer who comes through the door is with the logging industry and there’s a lot of uncertainty. Forsyth was out on the town the other night and heard talk about being laid off and guys not knowing when they’re going back to work.

Like other business people in Squamish, Norm McCartney, owner of Paradise Valley Hardware, says it’s too early to tell what effects layoffs in the forest industry will have in the community. But, he’s lived here for 36 years and he’s never seen an impact like this.

"They just hope it doesn’t last," he says.

Interestingly, Squamish is a community that has had to fight for its survival, but it is also a place that is firmly rooted in the forest industry. When Bill Manson got off a boat at the foot of Main Street in 1946, Squamish was a town trying to find its footing.

"There were wooden sidewalks and a number of channels that laced up from the sea," he recalls. "It was the second of February and they’d had a heavy snowfall and rain and it was rather dismal, and I thought to myself, what are you doing coming to a place like this? There were cows and horses all over the street and huge puddles everywhere."

There was no municipality, but even then the burgeoning town was very much dominated by the forest industry. The truck loggers were coming in and there was prosperity. Manson liked the area, particularly the people who worked in the woods.

"They were a tough bunch of guys," he says.

Manson worked in the woods and in an office, earning $125 a month plus room and board and a vehicle.

"We had a 50-person camp down on the waterfront that was a converted hotel," he continues. "I worked under a Norwegian forester who was very knowledgable in forestry, so I got a very early start about what the role of the forest in society should or could be."

Manson worked in an era of volatile markets, but there was lots of work.

"We used to budget for 12 months of the year but that’s impossible today," he continues. "We’re into more of a six months of the year budget, which changes the whole picture."

Manson believes that the knowledge base in forestry in B.C. has been greatly decimated with the disappearance of the Norwegian foresters, but there have always been people who have had vision.

"We have to have a much more intimate role about the role of the forest," he says.

But in Squamish doors to a future in the forest industry have at least been temporarily closed.

"The 19.3 per cent was probably the straw that broke the camel’s back and shut down our local mill," says Squamish Mayor Corrine Lonsdale.

It’s not just sawmill workers that are affected. There’s a trickle down effect that impacts the transportation sector and local businesses. There are parts suppliers, tire people, and office suppliers. People can’t spend what they’d normally spend in grocery stores.

"If you went down our main street you would find from our merchants that sales are worse than they’ve been for three or four years," Lonsdale continues. "They are not having a good year at all, and it’s not going to get any better."

Forestry accounts for nearly half the employment in Squamish and vicinity. The number of direct jobs lost when the sawmill shut down on Oct. 1, including jobs stimulated by forest industry activity, total 2,339. Now there’s worry about the mill being down for an indefinite length of time.

"People are damned concerned it won’t start back up," Lonsdale admits.

But Lonsdale doesn’t believe the sawmill will be shut down permanently.

"It will come back," she says.

What the community needs to do is diversify, adding new businesses to the economy.

"That’s why the university is very important," Lonsdale continues. "It’s important not to be dependent on any one sector."

Bill LeDuke feels like a man who’s been kicked when he’s down and wonders when this thing is ever going to be settled.

"We had heard the anti-dumping duty was on the way," he says. "We just didn’t have any idea how much."

He sees his chances of getting a job in Squamish now as very, very low. He also knows that in every town in B.C. where there’s a sawmill there’s someone like him in the same position. But in Squamish people are nothing if not resilient. It’s going to take the community a while to get its feet back on the ground, but that, really, is what Squamish is all about.