Sunday February 23, 2025 | LANGFORD, BC [Posted at 3:38 pm | Updated 4:46 pm]
by Mary P Brooke | Island Social Trends
Both forestry diversification for the province and local matters closer to home, Ravi Parmar has it all in his viewfinder.
Parmar is BC Minister of Forests, with his roots in the west shore community of Langford as the MLA for Langford-Highlands. He asserts that he will attend to both.
Island Social Trends caught up with Minister Parmar earlier this month, just days after the first presumed pause in ‘Trump tariffs’.
Since then, the first session of the 43rd BC Parliament has begun. The first day of the first session of the BC 43rd Parliament was on February 19. Premier Eby told media that the US economic threat is the issue of the session.
In the Legislative Assembly chamber, Parmar is seated right behind Premier David Eby and BC Finance Minister Brenda Bailey. He is seated next to Housing and Municipal Affairs Minister Ravi Kahlon who chairs the BC cabinet committee on economy and tariffs of which Parmar is a member.
Parmar is the Deputy Government House Leader, working in alignment with Government House Leader Mike Farnworth (now in his eighth term).
Softwood lumber advisory council:
The focus of the Softwood Lumber Advisory Council is to primarily address the current challenges that BC faces with duties and tariffs.
“British Columbians and Canadians are resting a little bit easy knowing that we’re not (presently) contending with the Trump tariffs, potentially for an other 25 or however many days,” said Parmar on February 6.
“But in forestry we already have a 14.4% duty that we’re dealing with. And we know, that duties are set to go up in August of this year in double digits,” says Parmar.
“So if we add those up, in addition to a potential Trump tariff, we could be dealing with upwards of 50% to 55% duties in our softwood lumber going into the United States,” he says.
“So it’s really important for me to be able to bring this entire sector together to help advise me on the support needed to help industry, to support workers,” says the Forests minister.
Broader lumber economics:
Meanwhile, BC will “also be making the case to the Americans and to our federal government that we all need to get to one table and hammer this out once and for all”, says Forests Minister Parmar said earlier this month
A softwood lumber tariff already in place before Trump. But more is coming.
“We won’t know the exact percent point, which we expect to be in the double digits. We’ll know later this month when the duties are published,” said Parmar.
In mid-February Forests Minister Parmar went to California to see the impact of the recent urban wildfire and to engage directly with government staff and business leaders regarding BC softwood lumber. On February 14 he held a live media availability from Sacramento.
BC Cabinet dealing with US relations:
All BC Cabinet ministers received their mandate letters on January 16.
“My priority on a day-to-day basis based on responsibilities given to me by Premier Eby is to stand up and restore confidence in the forest sector, to stand up for workers and to honour the commitments that we’ve made to honour the biodiversity as well to the declaration of the rights of Indigenous peoples,” says Parmar.
The Premier’s mandate letter to the Minister of Forests includes directives around attention to forestry sector jobs, softwood lumber duties, engaging with the industry sector including value-added and innovative products and effective permitting, while maintaining environmental concerns, Indigenous relations, and forest sustainability.
“It’s obviously very difficult to do that when we’re contending with duties and tariffs,” said Parmar. But he says he’ll bring issues to cabinet.
“The expectation of me and all of my other colleagues is to ensure that British Columbia is prepared to deal with the challenges,” says Parmar.
Three-part BC economic strategy around tariffs:
Trade diversification is highlighted by Parmar, within the Premier’s three tariff response pillars.
The Premier’s three-part strategy has to be do with responding (as part of a ‘team Canada’ approach), strengthening the economy, and diversification.
Canada’s premiers when to Washington DC on February 12 and have had other opportunities to address American lawmakers and the American people through American media.
Diversification is key for Parmar:
Particularly in forestry, Parmar feels that Canada is too reliant on the United States. “We have no choice but to diversity,” Parmar told Island Social Trends.
“We are too reliant on the United States. I think industry and government recognize that. We have not done a good enough job in forestry of doing so. So my expectation is to work with industry through our crown corporation Forest Innovation and Investment to make sure we are taking steps today to make sure we are diversifying,” said Parmar.
BC softwood lumber markets includes Japan, India, China and elsewhere, he says, noting that presently upwards of 60% of BC lumber goes to the United States. Will BC now try to maintain that level to the US or will that diminish?
“It depends on what happens over the next several months,” says Parmar.
“”There was a time when we were sitting at about 40% prior to the pandemic. Mostly due to the ability for us to be able to ship logs and products to China. But when the Russia-Ukraine war began Russia started offloading a lot of their lumber into China which impacted British Columbia significantly,” BC’s Forests Minister says.
The Japanese market seems strong and profits can be substantial. “We’ve done a lot of work in the Japanese markets.” says Parmar, adding that people there “love BC lumber”. But while “they pay a really good price, sometimes double what American’s pay”, housing starts in Japan are declining due to an aging demographic.
“So we have to look at new markets,” says Parmar. He mentions Vietnam, Indonesia and India. Parts of Europe seek high-value BC softwood products.
Local to Langford:
Does the newly elected MLA for the brand new riding of Langford-Highlands have priorities for his local riding? “Yes, several,” says Parmar.
“I’ve made it a priority very early on in my time as Minister of Forests to make sure I’m as rooted and connected to my constituency. One of the biggest areas of advice that former Premier Horgan had left with me before he passed was “stay connected at home, and stay connected with your people”.
“So obviously it’s top of mind,” says Parmar, adding that it’s a struggle. “It’s tough to be away from home for me. And tough to be away from exciting and challenging conversations.”
But he wants to dedicate as much time as he can to his constituency.
“I’ll be back on the doorsteps again in the next couple of weeks,” says Parmar. He looks forward to talking to people about health care that he “hears a lot about” and overall infrastructure including investments in transportation “to keep people moving”.
Parmar feels that 2025 will be a banner year for Langford. He highlights the opening of a new elementary school in south Langford and the opening of the Langford campus of Royal Roads University with a new undergrad program offering which he considers to be “one of the crown jewels of Langford”.
“My commitment to the people of Langford-Highlands is I will be just as present as I have been for the last year since becoming the MLA (for Langford-Highlands in October 2024 and before that for Langford-Juan de Fuca in June 2023) even though I’m now Minister of Forests.”
“My work starts and stops in Langford-Highlands.”
Door knocking:
Parmar will be out door knocking this spring as “that’s the best way to find out what’s happening on the ground”, by talking to people.
“I can’t rely on them coming to me all the time. I have to go to them as well,” says Parmar.
“I find door-knocking probably to be the most soothing thing that I do. Because it’s good to do and it’s the best way to understand what’s happening on the ground,” he told Island Social Trends.
Langford council will buy Canadian:
On February 4 the City of Langford made a declaration about buying Canadian in support of the BC Government’s direction on that matter.
Parmar appreciates all local governments, school boards, the province, the federal government, crown corporations, agencies, and profit-sector businesses who take a ‘buy Canadian’ approach.
“If we all supported BC and Canada we’d be in a better place. I commend anyone doing that,” says Parmar, adding that “we all have a role to play in supporting our local economy and BC and Canadian businesses, whether that’s at the grocery store or around a committee table”.
“It’s encouraging to see everyone stepping up to support local at such a key time,” says the MLA for Langford-Highlands.
===== RELATED:
- BC Legislature 2025: New session, same old heckling (February 19, 2025)
- US economic threat is “issue of the session” says Premier Eby (February 18, 2025)
- BC Forests Minister Ravi Parmar building softwood lumber trade ties with California (February 14, 2025)
- BC softwood lumber advisory council launched amidst tariff threat (February 5, 2025)
- Langford council commits to Canada-first procurement & local business support (February 4, 2025)
- Eby appoints BC cabinet committee on economy & tariffs (January 29, 2025)
- BC Premier Eby on Canada’s strategy around US tariffs (January 15, 2205)
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