Premier David Eby began his address to the Natural Resources Forum in Prince George Tuesday night describing the “hardest challenge and where I think we have the most work ahead”: the province’s beleaguered forestry sector.

Eby said he’s still trying to bring about stability to an industry rocked by American softwood lumber tariffs, admitting “there are no quick fixes” to the dozens of mill closures, curtailments and layoffs occurring under his government.

“It is challenging,” Eby said.

“It always feels too slow for the urgency of the threat. But predictable land access, permit reform, value-added investments and new trading relationships will deliver a better forestry future.”

The premier skipped an opportunity to speak to forestry leaders directly last week at the annual Truck Loggers Association convention, becoming the first premier in recent memory to do so. Instead, Eby was on a trade mission to India.

Perhaps if he’d gone, he would have once again been reminded from those working in forestry that it is the NDP government’s own policies on old growth, climate, reconciliation and permitting that have created the crisis the industry faces, with American tariffs just adding to the damage.

Forestry companies complain of a persistent inability to access economical trees, wood waste and fibre that is crippling the industry, leading to sawmill closures that compound into pulp mill closures that........

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