Thank you, Mr. Chair.
Thank you for the opportunity to appear before the committee. Like my counterparts, I apologize for not being there in person. However, meetings here in Vancouver require that I must appear virtually.
My name is Jeff Bromley. I am the chair of the United Steelworkers' wood council. The wood council consists of 14,000 members working in Canada's forest industry across six provinces and in many aspects of the forest industry. I myself have spent 31 years in this industry, 18 years of it in manufacturing and the last 13 years servicing directly those members across this country.
Up until recently, our membership surpassed 20,000, representing mostly rural but high-paying and pension-supporting jobs with lots of health and welfare benefits. The impact of the most recent round of U.S. duties and tariffs on our products going to the States have had a massive impact on that membership, on those communities and on those families.
I don't need to reiterate what you've already heard here today in terms of the amount of duties since January 1, 2017, totalling close to $10 billion that the industry has paid on the products going into the United States. On the impact of those duties and the number of jobs that have been lost, there is a direct correlation. While it's not the only reason for those jobs being lost, it has had an incredible impact.
The forest industry in Canada, in my opinion, seems to get a bit left out of the conversation when it comes to trade. It certainly garners enough attention, but when it comes to wide-ranging trade agreements, especially with the United States, softwood lumber has always, in my history, been left out. That's to the detriment of our industry. Over 220,000 folks make their living in this industry across the nation, and 11,000 of those people are indigenous. The impact is far-reaching.
I'll focus on British Columbia. In our northern local in the Prince George area, that area has seen 15 operations close over the last five or six years, with a massive amount of job loss. I think what our government needs to do is focus on making sure we find a trade deal that supports the industry. As much as programs have been announced in terms of short-term loans for companies that need to access them, training to upskill workers for other industries or within the forestry itself, and market development offshore, those will move the needle somewhat in terms of finding new markets within Canada's forest industry, but the impact of the U.S. demand, taking 75% of Canada's forest products, is too great for us to be able to pivot enough to move that needle to continue to provide these high-paying jobs.
There are opportunities in terms of value added. When we talk about softwood lumber, many of my members across that 14,000 do produce two-by-fours and two-by-sixes and building products. They also produce massive amounts of value added, whether it be laminated veneer lumber, plywood, finger-jointed products or mass timber products. The markets are expanding, but the opportunities for those jobs to grow are growing at a smaller pace in terms of the opportunity that's provided by those softwood products going into the United States.
Our industry is a net carbon sink. For those who believe the forest shouldn't be managed, I say that if you do not manage those forests the way the industry does, Mother Nature will manage it for us. There will be fire. There will be disease and bugs that will do the damage we wouldn't do if we were managing those forests properly, which I believe our forest industry does. Support of that forest industry across the nation is paramount.
As I mentioned, the development of markets is super important. In the procurement and development of government buildings, using Canada's wood is pretty much a no-brainer in terms of any wood products within any government buildings and the promotion of Canadian wood products.