Northwood Pulp Mill Is Closing: 300 Prince George Jobs Hit While B.C. Waits for a Forestry Plan

Canfor announced Tuesday that it will permanently close the Northwood pulp mill in Prince George. The company’s short public notice gives the headline numbers clearly: about 300 employees directly affected, and an annual reduction of about 300,000 tonnes of Northern Bleached Softwood Kraft pulp production from Northwood.

That is the fact pattern B.C. voters should start from. This is not a social-media rumour or a campaign talking point. It is a formal company announcement about a major industrial employer in a northern city where forestry jobs still anchor families, contractors, suppliers and local tax bases.

Canfor’s release says the closure follows “prolonged unsustainable financial losses” and points to global pulp oversupply, downward pressure on pulp prices and persistent challenges accessing fibre. Those words matter. The legally careful criticism is not that Victoria alone caused every global market problem. It did not. The accountability question is why, after years of mill curtailments and closures, B.C. is still watching communities absorb the damage while the province talks about stabilizing the sector.

The NDP government already knew Northwood was in trouble. In May 2024, after Canfor announced the closure of Polar Sawmill, a curtailment of a pulp line at Northwood and a pause on Houston mill reinvestment, the forests minister said the government was disappointed, would support affected workers and communities, and had been focused on stabilizing the sector. Two years later, Northwood is no longer just curtailed. It is heading for permanent closure.

That gap between promise and outcome is the story. The government can point to programs such as the BC Manufacturing Jobs Fund and the Forest Enhancement Society of BC. It can say commodity cycles are real. Both points can be true. But Prince George workers are still entitled to ask what the strategy delivered before the gate shut for good.

There are hard questions here that do not require speculation. How many of the roughly 300 affected employees will have comparable work in Prince George? What provincial supports will be available before the late-2026 wind-down is complete? What is the province’s measurable plan for fibre access, not just its next statement of concern? And how many more communities have to read the same “market conditions plus fibre challenges” explanation before the government admits its forestry file is failing on results?

Canfor says it will work with employees, union representatives and Indigenous partners through an orderly wind-down. That is necessary. It is not enough. A managed closure is still a closure. A support program is still a response after the loss.

For the Eby government, Northwood is a northern B.C. accountability test. If the NDP’s forestry plan cannot keep a major Prince George pulp operation alive, voters deserve a plain answer about what the plan is actually for.