Canada will pivot its wood export strategy away from the United States under a new national Forest Strategy, with the federal government pledging the policy will lift the 300 rural and Indigenous communities whose livelihoods depend on Canadian forests after five separate tariff wars with the Americans.
That is according to Tim Hodgson, Canada’s Minister of Energy and Natural Resources, who told the Empire Club of Canada that the country’s forest sector was “really the canary in the coalmine when it comes to American tariffs.”
Wood Central understands the strategy will be informed by a federal Forest Sector Transformation Task Force report Hodgson received last week, which is being developed in partnership with provinces, territories and Indigenous Peoples.
It comes as combined antidumping, countervailing and Section 232 tariffs hold the effective rate on most Canadian softwood lumber at 34.83 per cent until a final US Department of Commerce determination expected in late August 2026, with softwood imports into the US falling 28 per cent year-on-year to January.
Hodgson, who spent part of his childhood in a forestry town, told the Empire Club the strategy was about pivoting to grow, with Ottawa now targeting new international partners hungry for Canadian wood and embedding forest products into the trade deals it signs.
In January, the Minister accompanied Prime Minister Mark Carney to China, where forest products were identified as a major area of trade collaboration between the two countries — a market-opening that comes as US duties on most Canadian producers continue to escalate.
The Forest Sector Transformation Task Force, which began work in January, was charged with two challenges set out in writing by Hodgson when the body was stood up: how the Canadian forest sector could better serve Canadian customers, and how Canadian customers could better serve the sector.
It also aligns with Prime Minister Carney’s Build Canada Homes construction strategy, which signals the federal government’s intent to accelerate domestic mass timber uptake as part of a broader push to address housing affordability across the country.
Hodgson said the Forest Strategy would be shared with Canadians later this year, with forest products positioned alongside energy, electricity and minerals as one of Canada’s strongest cards in the upcoming CUSMA renegotiation.
