Ken Kalesnikoff, owner and CEO of Kalesnikoff Mass Timber, has called U.S. President Donald Trump’s tariffs on Canadian goods “unbelievable.”
Kalesnikoff runs a sawmill and mass timber manufacturing facility in South Slocan and employs over 300 people from throughout the region.
He is also a member of the Interior Lumber Manufacturing Association (ILMA) and Forestry Works for B.C.
Kalesnikoff says the 25 per cent tariffs imposed on all Canadian goods pose a critical threat to the forestry industry in the province, which may also see the duties on softwood lumber exports increase to 27 per cent in August.
“If you start with what we were dealing with as an industry in B.C., which is the unfair duties that are being charged by the U.S. on lumber. They just announced an increase to the tune of almost 27 per cent from 14.5 per cent. That was going to be bad enough, then to get 25 per cent on top of that with these tariffs is just unbelievable.”
Trump had also threatened to increase anti-dumping duties on Canadian softwood lumber exports during his last term.
This forced the company to explore market diversification, which, fortunately for Kalesnikoff, means it’s less reliant on U.S. exports.
However, he says the sawmill still exports about 20 per cent of its product to the U.S.
“We diversified our markets quite a long time ago. We are focused now potentially on Japan and Europe. Those are two markets that we are accessing right now. We got into mass timber because it was an opportunity that we saw to be able to take our product further up the value chain. And that’s kind of where we are at today.”
Kalesnikoff expects the 25 per cent tariff to impact his mass timber facility more significantly than the anti-dumping duty increase.
“Our mass timber products will predominantly be going into the Canadian market, but we do have some that go into the U.S. market. So there’s risk for us there. This new tariff captures everything, and it’s pretty difficult for us to maneuver through that, and it is going to hurt us on the mass timber side.”
While it’s still too early to determine the full impact these tariffs and anti-dumping duties could have on the company’s operations and finances, Kalesnikoff points to broader economic concerns, questioning how the market will respond.
“We saw some pretty high lumber prices during COVID, and people still continued to buy. The problem this time is we will have a pretty large economic impact. So are we gonna start seeing developers not build because of the economic state that this is going to potentially throw us into? That’s a big question. And where the market is going to go as far as lumber prices is another big question.”
The B.C. government’s response to the tariffs and anti-dumping duties has included a commitment to diversify markets; however, Kalesnikoff says diversification is not the only answer.
While it may help, he says the province needs to “look at its own backyard” and deal with internal issues that are “very costly” to the industry.
“We’re one of the highest-cost producers in the world now with all of the restrictions and policies that have been put into place. We need to seriously look at interprovincial regulations, but we need to look at that provincially as well,” he said.
“We’ve had many things happen over the years where our working land base has been shrinking and we’ve been put into a corner. Interprovincial policies would help if they changed some of the rules, but we need to look at our own backyard and deal with internal issues that we’re dealing with that are very costly to the industry.”
That said, Kalesnikoff notes that the forestry sector has a history of resilience in the face of economic uncertainty, saying he will be watching what the market does in the coming weeks.
“In the forest industry, we’ve been through a lot of ups and downs, and we’ve been through a lot of different market conditions, and we’ve always survived them. I think that water will find its level. We will see what the markets do. The U.S. doesn’t have enough of their own lumber, which makes this whole thing absolutely ridiculous.”
“We need to make sure that we’re doing everything we can in British Columbia to recognize, support, and promote forest products in the province. There’s opportunity for us to get through this. I really believe that the forest industry is very resilient. We’ve survived to this point with some pretty strong things against us, and I think that we’ll get through this one as well.”
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