2024-08-31 04:00:00
Long gone are the summers when lumber was sold at high prices during the pandemic. Then the value of boards fell even more dramatically, and sawmill closures began to multiply in Quebec this summer. In these regions, this new forestry crisis is prompting mayors to consider closing villages.
Herman Martel remembers the forestry crisis of 2005 vividly. More than 21,000 jobs were lost and mills closed permanently across Quebec, recalls the union president of the Rivière-aux-Rats sawmill in Morrissey. “I feel like I’m back in 2005,” laments the union member with 30 years’ experience. “I hope I’m wrong. But in 2005, we started having the same problems. »
Twenty years later, most Quebec sawmills are experiencing the same decline, but for slightly different reasons. U.S. taxes on Canadian lumber, federal edicts protecting woodland caribou, catastrophic forest fires: there’s no shortage of reasons to slow production. “We’re in the middle of a perfect storm,” says Herman Martel. “We’re all on alert.”
Federal elected officials and the prefect of Lac Saint-Jean, who can’t wait to see the industry start growing again, raised a heartfelt cry in unison on Thursday after the announcement of the closure of the Petit Paris sawmill in Saint-Jean-de-Millot. From October 18, about 100 workers will lose their jobs. “On our territory [de la MRC de Lac-Saint-Jean-Est]34 of our 60 cities are directly related to forestry. There are 34 communities in total, most of which are single industries. The risk of sealing off the village is very high. ” concluded responsibility said Louis Ouellet, mayor of the city of Ascension-de-Notre-Ségnieu, which hosted the meeting.
This fear is reflected in multiple regions. So much so that the mayor of Sacre-Coeur in Haute-Côte despaired this week that the village of 1,600 residents was “at risk.” She argued before a parliamentary committee that the town could become a “ghost village” if Ottawa goes ahead with an ordinance protecting woodland caribou.
“Painful” but “temporary”?
Jean-François Samray, president and CEO of the Quebec Forestry Commission (CIFQ), acknowledged that the situation in Quebec’s woodlands is “painful.” However, he clarified in an interview that these problems are “temporary.” These closures come from “cyclical” trends and are no longer “structural” as they were two decades ago. “In other crises, Quebec was the first to close. [ses usines]. Quebec was one of the last regions to close during this crisis. This means that the industry has modernized and we are more efficient. »
Newsprint mills recycle into cardboard or tissue paper. Board mills make arrowheads from all the wood and add demolition wood to the mix. Still, this diversification doesn’t solve all the pitfalls of one of the world’s most competitive markets.
The Americans, the Quebecers’ main customers, have fallen further into protectionism: a surge in tariffs this summer — from 8.05% to 14.54% — has cost mills here billions of dollars. To make matters worse, Europe and South America have recently become fierce competitors for Quebec paper companies, which were small players before the pandemic. They now account for 10% of the North American market, up from 30 to 40 million board feet per month before the pandemic to 30 to 400 million board feet per month today, according to CIFQ.
“The market is no longer a North American one, it’s a global one,” comments Jean-François Samray.
Elected officials, unions and industry all agree on one thing: the management of Quebec’s forests must change. “We often think of ‘Quebec forest’ as a singular term,” said Mr. Samre. “But spring doesn’t come at the same time in all parts of Quebec, and the trees that grow there are different: Quebec has many forests. The current system is very rigid because it’s the same for everyone.”
Minister Maïté Blanchette Vézina’s office said the guidelines should be published this fall, but did not give an exact timeline. The elected official said in writing that the new law will “provide more predictability to the forestry sector” and “give oxygen to businesses.” For thousands of Quebec forestry workers, this regime change cannot wait.
This report was supported by the Local Journalism Initiative, funded by the Government of Canada.
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