Last Thursday, Minister of Jobs and Families Patty Hajdu headed to Victoria to announce $70.4 million over three years intended to help tariff-affected workers retrain, upskill and get new jobs.
The funding is part of the federal government’s strategy to help workers respond to U.S. President Donald Trump’s trade war. Here in B.C., that’s largely workers in the forestry sector and steel.
Tariffs and anti-dumping duties on lumber that combine to reach up to 45 per cent have already contributed to mill closures and intermittent layoffs in northern B.C. Meanwhile, tariffs on steel and aluminum have reached 50 per cent.
Experts expect tariffs to continue driving mill closures, layoffs and cuts to workers’ hours.
In response, the federal government is diversifying its trading partners, making employment insurance easier to access and investing in skills training, Hajdu told The Tyee in an interview.
“It’s quite a disorienting time to lose your job,” she said. “Some of these folks are long-tenured workers who are in the job market for a very long time, which is even more disorienting.”
But United Steelworkers Wood Council chair Jeff Bromley said that while new trade relationships are already helping some B.C. lumber workers, Canada needs to bolster employment insurance even more to keep workers from falling through the cracks.
He added that while the investment into skills training is welcome, it’s presently unclear exactly how the money will help United Steelworkers’ 14,000 members in lumber and wood products — 9,000 of whom are in B.C.
“When folks are laid off, it’s hard to get training through their former employers,” he said. “That means they have to change industries or get training for different employment, and that doesn’t help keep our members in the industry.”
Despite being partly ruled illegal, the threat of Trump’s tariffs still looms large over B.C.
On Feb. 20, the U.S. Supreme Court struck down a number of tariffs Trump has imposed since last year. In response, Trump promised to slap a 15 per cent global tariff on goods affected by the decision.
Federal Finance Minister François-Philippe Champagne told reporters in Ottawa last month it’s unlikely the United States would lift tariffs on Canadian exports.
At the time of publication, the United States still imposes a 50 per cent tariff on steel and aluminum and a 25 per cent tariff on goods including upholstered furniture, kitchen cabinets, passenger vehicles, trucks and auto parts.
It also still has a 10 per cent tariff on Canadian softwood timber and lumber — which are also subject to anti-dumping duties of more than 20 per cent.
The lumber tariffs have directly caused layoffs and job losses already, United Steelworkers’ Bromley said.
He pointed to the sawmill in Chemainus, B.C., that halted production last July and will remain closed until the end of this year, keeping 120 workers off the job.
Meanwhile, other workers are seeing their hours cut. For example, approximately 350 workers at sawmills in Prince George, Fort St. James and Vanderhoof saw work hours reduced by 40 per cent last October.
In response to layoffs, the federal government loosened access to employment insurance. It waived the one-week waiting period before laid-off workers start receiving employment insurance and upped the number of weeks long-tenured workers could receive EI payments.
But Bromley said these rules still have hundreds of mill workers falling through the cracks.
He again pointed to the workers at the sawmill in Chemainus, who were expecting to resume work this year until finding out in January that their mill would stay inactive. Many will start running out of employment insurance this week.
He called for Ottawa to consider further changes to employment insurance rules and to invest more money into the benefits.
“It’s an easy pull,” Bromley said. “That’s an easy one that helps folks make sure they pay their bills.”
Meanwhile, Bromley said the government’s efforts to find new trading partners besides the United States are starting to make a difference for members.
For example, he said some southeastern B.C. mills have pivoted from producing two-by-fours to cutting wood into metric sizes for a European market. But it takes years for these markets to develop.
“Canada needs to be committed to these markets,” he said. “And while it may not add up to the U.S. market, being the giant that it is right next to us, it certainly will help.”
Bromley also called for the government to ensure Canadian wood is procured for all major infrastructure projects.
Part of the federal government’s strategy is to invest in skills training and employment services, to support affected workers in a range of different ways.
Ottawa already transfers the B.C. government $400 million each year to support provincially run employment services.
The last federal budget announced it would distribute an extra $570 million over three years among the provinces and territories, for workers affected by U.S. tariffs.
Hajdu’s announcement Thursday is the first indication of what that means for B.C. She said the $70.4 million would go largely to steel and lumber workers but would also be used for other tariff-affected industries.
The money would support services such as career counselling and job search assistance for workers laid off due to tariffs.
“When an industry goes down, oftentimes long-tenured workers who haven’t been in the workforce for a very long time haven’t prepared a resumé in 20 years,” she said. “Even just that step can be really overwhelming.”
It might also help workers access skills training needed to move into other industries, like construction and skilled trades.
“As minister of jobs I’m trying to figure out how we match the work with the talent that’s available, and really ensure that when people lose their work, they have the ability to pivot to work that is available,” she said.
Meanwhile, Bromley said that until the province announces how it plans to divide the extra funds, it’s not clear if the funding will have a real impact for longtime mill workers.
“It’s a good concept, but where is the proof?” he said. “The devil’s going to be in the details.”
