Timber exports from BC, especially from the province’s interior and especially to the United States, are roaring, despite the punishing tariffs Washington, DC, has imposed on Canadian lumber in protest over provincial subsidies. Prices are up by half over last year, the Vancouver Sun reports. (Subscription required.)
What’s going on? The US home building industry had a booming spring, thanks to low interest rates and the expectation that they would rise sometime very soon. (As they’ve now done.) And thanks to the massive tax subsidy (download PDF, see page 40) that the US treasury gives to home buyers, in the form of the mortgage interest deduction. Also, Canada’s dollar is weak compared with the Euro, which is boosting Canada’s market share in Japan.
Expect to see faster clearcutting, when Sightline updates the BC forest indicator in the Cascadia Scorecard.
