One of B.C.’s largest forestry companies is moving its head offices to the United States.
Interfor will be moving its headquarters from Burnaby to the outskirts of Atlanta, Ga., according to a memo sent by chief executive Ian Fillinger, which has been viewed by the Financial Post.
Jock Finlayson, the chief economist for the Independent Contractors and Businesses Association (ICBA), which is the largest construction industry association in Canada and based in B.C., told Global News that Interfor is one of the foundational businesses in B.C.’s forest industry.
“They have reduced their footprint here kind of incrementally over time,” Finalyson said.
“Most of the assets of the business are in the United States now, which I think sort of helps to explain the move that they’ve announced this morning.”
But Finalyson said that Interfor’s announcement is a sign of how the overall forest products sector, which at one point was B.C.’s largest goods-producing industry and the number one source of export earnings, has fallen on hard times.
In May, B.C. Premier David Eby said he was frustrated that help for the province’s softwood lumber industry was not included in the federal government’s $1.5-billion relief package for tariff-hit industries.
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Eby said in November that he was confident the federal government understood the importance of the logging industry to communities both large and small across the province.
In December, Domtar closed a pulp mill in Crofton on Vancouver Island, laying off 350 people.
A few weeks ago, Canfor announced it is shutting down a pulp mill in Prince George.
The company announced the closure of the Northwood Pulp Mill, saying it would result in the loss of 300 jobs.
“B.C. has really lost our competitive position as a lumber and forest products producing jurisdiction generally, certainly in the North American context,” Finlayson said.
“And it’s been underway for probably at least 15 years. It’s really accelerated under the current B.C. government, in my view, because they have not prioritized the maintenance of a commercially successful forest product sector.
“Most of our forest resource in B.C. is on Crown land. Therefore, the government is sort of in control. They’re the landlord, they’re the regulator. And the conditions that they’ve established for the industry are very unfavourable for both new investment and even current operations.”
Finlayson added that this may not be the last big company based in B.C. that ends up relocating its physical office.
He said the additional U.S. softwood lumber tariffs and the declining fibre supply in B.C. have also affected the industry.
“Where the government’s role has come, I think, is they’ve created what is probably the most difficult and costly regulatory climate for logging and wood products manufacturing, maybe anywhere in the world, but certainly anywhere in North America,” Finalyson added.
“We have a lot of trees. We shouldn’t really be that high-cost of a producer, right? When you fly over B.C., we’re not short of fibre, but we’re short of competitively accessible fibre that the government can manage in an efficient manner.”
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