Ontario has unveiled its Roadmap to Protecting Ontario’s Forest Sector, a 10-year defend-adapt-grow strategy designed to shield $21 billion in annual revenue and 154,000 jobs from combined US duties and tariffs that have pushed lumber export rates to 45.16 per cent in a province where 97 per cent of forest products flow to American markets.
That is according to Kevin Holland, Associate Minister of Forestry and Forest Products, who said the roadmap would “connect Ontario’s strong forest product supply chains to new sectors here at home and emerging markets around the world,” with the province positioning itself as the G7’s number one choice for wood products investment.
Wood Central understands the framework that emerged from ministry-led roundtables and seven provincial tours conducted between May and September 2025, alongside ongoing collaboration with the Forest Sector Strategy Committee and Advanced Wood Committee.
The defend pillar targets tariff-impact mitigation whilst working with federal authorities to maintain critical mill operations; the adapt pillar focuses on regulatory burden elimination and facility modernisation; and the grow pillar drives domestic wood consumption through Buy Ontario policy integration and forest product commercialisation. The roadmap responds directly to the recent escalation that lifted softwood lumber duties from 14.4 per cent to 35.16 per cent, coupled with additional 10 per cent lumber tariffs and 25 per cent furniture and cabinetry duties on Ontario shipments crossing south.
As it stands, Ontario remains Canada’s lowest-cost lumber producer, generating 23 per cent of national forestry GDP from just 9 per cent of the wood harvest, with $8.3 billion in forest product exports during 2025 and market access through more than 50 international trade agreements.
According to Mike Harris, the Minister of Natural Resources, the framework would build industry resilience whilst reaffirming the province’s G7 leadership credentials. “This roadmap lays out our plan to build a more resilient forest industry that will create more good-paying jobs,” Harris said.
The strategy builds on $355 million invested since 2022 across the Forest Sector Investment and Innovation Program, Forest Biomass Program and Provincial Forest Access Roads Funding Program, supporting 90 businesses and Indigenous communities whilst creating 320 positions across forest-dependent regions.
Wood Central understands the Ontario Forest Industries Association has welcomed the framework as critical infrastructure for long-term sector stability, with President and CEO Ian Dunn telling the announcement the roadmap “reinforces the province’s commitment to defending our sector while fostering a competitive environment for investment and innovation.”
The framework’s domestic demand focus has drawn endorsement from advanced wood construction advocates, with WoodWorks Ontario Executive Director Steven Street saying, “the structured approach it outlines for defending, adapting, and growing our forestry sector in these turbulent times is essential to the industry’s survival and future growth.”
Support has extended across forestry-dependent regions, with Northwestern Ontario Municipal Association President Rick Dumas describing the roadmap as a renewed focus on innovation, workforce development and responsible resource management for communities where forestry remains the regional economic cornerstone.
The provincial strategy diverges from federal approaches, with Ottawa pivoting export focus toward China under its national Forest Strategy, currently being developed by Natural Resources Minister Tim Hodgson’s Forest Sector Transformation Task Force.
Ontario’s domestic-centred roadmap unfolds across 2-, 5-, and 10-year implementation horizons, with performance indicators scheduled for development in 2026 and annual progress reporting committed across the strategy lifecycle.
It comes as Wood Central reported Canada is eyeing China as five-pronged tariff wars hammer timber exports, with Ontario’s provincial roadmap now targeting domestic market resilience and the 300 rural and Indigenous communities whose livelihoods depend on the province’s forest sector through revenue diversification, mill modernisation and reduced American export dependence.
