While BC Mills Close, the NDP Quietly Made It Cheaper to Ship Raw Logs to Asia

On February 20, 2026, while most of BC was absorbed in debates over DRIPA, a $13.3-billion deficit, and closed hospitals, the provincial government's Forests Ministry quietly published a two-page policy document. No press conference. No ministerial statement. No coverage in the legislature.

The document announced a two-year pilot restructuring the "fee in lieu of manufacturing" — the penalty companies are supposed to pay when they export raw, unprocessed logs instead of milling them in British Columbia. The fee was cut to a flat 10 per cent of domestic value for most coastal timber species, replacing the variable rate structure that had been in place since December 2020.

In plain terms: the NDP made it cheaper to ship BC trees to Asia whole, without creating a single BC job in the process.

What the "Fee in Lieu" Actually Is

Under BC law, companies that harvest timber on Crown land are generally expected to process those logs in British Columbia — in sawmills, pulp mills, and value-added facilities that employ BC workers. When a company applies for an exemption to export logs unprocessed, they're supposed to pay a fee that compensates — at least partially — for the foregone manufacturing jobs and provincial economic activity.

The fee-in-lieu system is the policy backstop between BC workers and a race to the bottom. Companies that want to skip BC mills and ship straight to overseas buyers are supposed to pay a premium that makes it less attractive. It's not a perfect system, but it's the one the province has relied on.

In February, the NDP weakened it. The pilot reduces the fee to a flat 10 per cent rate for most species on the coast — making raw log exports noticeably more profitable, at the expense of BC processing jobs.

A Broken Promise Going Back to Horgan

This isn't the first time the NDP has promised to protect BC's forest workers from raw log export pressures. In 2019, then-Premier John Horgan made an explicit commitment to reduce raw log exports and keep BC trees in BC mills. The goal was to reverse a decades-long trend of mill closures driven by log exports, preserving what remained of the province's forestry workforce.

That commitment is now being quietly unwound by his successor.

Meanwhile, BC's sawmill and pulp mill sectors have continued their decline. The Crofton pulp mill closure — announced late in 2025 — cost 350 jobs. Sawmill workers in Chemainus, already laid off, have publicly complained that the logs they should be processing are instead being loaded onto ships. And BC's overall forestry employment has been in structural decline for years, with automation and log exports both squeezing what remains.

"The More You Export, the More Mills Shut Down"

Arnold Bercov has spent his career in BC's forestry sector. A former worker at the Harmac pulp mill near Nanaimo and former president of the Pulp, Paper and Woodworkers of Canada, he knows what happens when the balance tips toward exports.

Bercov told The Tyee that the government's "surplus test" — the mechanism used to decide which logs are eligible for export — amounts to a trap. The more processing capacity disappears, the easier it becomes to argue that BC doesn't have enough mills to absorb domestic log supply. Which then justifies more exports. Which destroys more mills. Which justifies still more exports.

It's a self-reinforcing spiral, and the NDP just greased the wheels.

Old-Growth Logs, Shipped Overseas

The policy applies to logs including those cut from old-growth forests. British Columbia's old-growth logging debate has consumed political oxygen for years, with the NDP promising a transition away from old-growth harvesting. Yet the reduced fee in lieu of manufacturing applies to this timber as well — meaning companies can cut old-growth trees, avoid BC mills entirely by paying a reduced fee, and ship the logs raw to foreign buyers.

If you wanted to design a policy that maximizes forest destruction while minimizing BC employment and economic benefit, it would look a lot like the current fee-in-lieu pilot.

The NDP's "Good Jobs" Contradiction

One week before this story broke, Premier David Eby was at a podium announcing the expansion of his Look West economic strategy — adding 17 new major projects to BC's priority list, with $88 billion in proposed investments and promises of "good jobs" for British Columbians.

Trades training. Skills development. Bigger paycheques. The whole pitch.

Meanwhile, in February, his Forests Ministry was quietly making it more profitable to skip BC workers entirely and ship trees to overseas mills. The disconnect is staggering: one arm of the government is making announcements about job creation while another is dismantling the fee structures that keep processing jobs in BC.

The NDP doesn't get to claim credit for creating forest sector jobs while it's quietly removing the disincentives that stop companies from eliminating those same jobs.

Why the Silence?

The policy change was published as an administrative document on the provincial government's forestry website. There was no ministerial announcement. No press conference. No consultation period. No legislative debate. The change was simply posted and implemented.

That silence is deliberate. This government knows its union base — including forestry workers — would not respond well to a policy that explicitly makes it more profitable to bypass BC mill workers. So it did it quietly, buried in technical documents most BC voters will never read, while front-facing communications stayed focused on major project announcements and reconciliation commitments.

It is, in other words, exactly how the NDP governs: progressive rhetoric up front, industry-friendly decisions buried in the fine print.

BC's forest workers deserve better. They were promised a government that would keep their logs in BC mills, their jobs in BC communities, and their industry on a sustainable footing. What they got was a fee cut — announced in a two-page PDF — that makes it easier for their employers to ship the trees out from under them.