The provincial government is defending forestry workers and the industry as a whole.
Ontario is calling on the U.S. government to remove all softwood lumber duties, calling them unfair.
In a joint statement, Minister of Natural Resources and Forestry, Graydon Smith and Minister of Economic Development, Job Creation and Trade, Vic Fedeli stated, “Ontario supports the U.S. Department of Commerce’s recent decision to lower the unfair duty rates on Canadian softwood lumber exports, however, the Ontario government maintains that all duty rates should be removed immediately.”
Rates have been lowered from 17.91% to 8.58%.
Fedeli and Smith say Ontario’s forest sector generated $18 billion in revenue from the sale of manufactured goods and services in 2020 and supported more than 148,000 direct and indirect jobs last year.
They stress softwood lumber duties punish consumers and businesses on both sides of the border and impose added hardship on the workers, families and communities that depend on the forest industry.
