Vancouver, (April 1, 2025): The BC Council of Forest Industries (COFI) has released a new report, “Competitiveness & Sustainability in the BC Forest Sector,” comparing BC’s forest industry with other forestry regions around the world.
The study was written by O’Kelly Acumen, and it highlights a strong link between a stable wood supply and investment attractiveness—areas where BC is lagging its competitors, putting its future at risk. Unless BC can address uncertainty in wood supply, the province will struggle to attract and retain forest industry investment.
The report provides an in-depth analysis through three components:
- Forest Sector Performance in international forestry regions across North America, South America and Europe is benchmarked using economic and sustainability data from international organizations and national statistics offices.
- A survey of global industry leaders captured their perceptions of the competitiveness of the different regions across eight factors, including investment attractiveness and wood supply.
- Lessons learned and opportunities to enhance BC’s long-term economic growth, resilience and sustainability are outlined.
The analysis of forest sector performance highlighted some challenges and strengths for BC:
- BC’s harvests declined by 6.5% annually from 2013 to 2023, while most peer regions saw stable or growing levels. The decline in the supply of raw materials to BC’s forest industry helps explain many of the economic outcomes observed during this period.
- Economic Decline: The forest sector in BC experienced the sharpest GDP contraction (-3.6%) among all regions studied; employment and productivity both declined, a “double hit” not seen in other jurisdictions; and export revenues fell faster than in peer regions.
- Strong Sustainability: BC’s performance in biodiversity protection is comparable to high-performing regions.
The industry survey confirms declining performance and wood supply availability affects global perceptions of BC’s investment climate:
- Investment & Tax Competitiveness: BC’s ratings for investment attractiveness and tax competitiveness are among the lowest of all regions surveyed.
- Innovation & Talent Gaps: Average ratings for skilled labour availability and cost suggest perceived challenges in workforce availability.
- BC has robust environmental policies, but there is room to improve how BC is perceived, with negative biases potentially stemming from public criticisms of the forest sector.
Building on these findings, the report outlines urgent strategic actions to strengthen BC’s forest sector including but not limited to:
- Designating working forest areas to secure wood supply.
- Accelerating transfer of forest tenure to First Nations.
- Advancing meaningful revenue sharing with First Nations.
- Streamlining permitting through clear performance metrics and a single-window for permits.
- Slowing the pace of policy and regulatory changes.
- Supporting BC Timber Sales to meet its mandate to bring wood to market.
- Increasing training spaces to meet demand for technology-oriented roles in forestry and other sectors.
- Ensuring BC’s industrial carbon pricing balances global competitiveness with decarbonization efforts.
- Promoting bioenergy utilization, including biomass for district heating and industrial power.
“Secure wood supply is essential to attracting investment and sustaining jobs. This study highlights the urgent need for policies that support long-term growth while maintaining BC’s strong environmental performance,” said Kim Haakstad, President and CEO of COFI.
With decisive action, BC can reverse current trends and strengthen the forest sector’s contribution to economic development, environmental stewardship, and community well-being. The full report covers this information in greater detail, with additional opportunities to improve the performance of the sector.
- The Executive Summary is available here.
- The Technical Report is available here.
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Media contacts
Travis Joern
Director of Communications, COFI
778-846-3465
joern@cofi.org