Major Canadian Lumber Producer Issues Mass Layoff
Originally Published by: HBS Dealer — June 9, 2025
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Groupe Rémabec, one of Canada’s biggest lumber producers, has announced what it's calling "temporary" layoffs of about 1,000 workers, according to the Financial Post. The company cites weakening demand and rising U.S. duties. Groupe Rémabec employs about 2,000 people and is headquartered in La Tuque, Quebec.
According to the Financial Post, many softwood lumber buyers that supply U.S. builders stocked up ahead of the U.S. tariffs, leaving yards are full and demand languishing. Tariffs, or the threat of more tariffs, would be on top of duties on Canadian softwood lumber that are expected to more than double in the coming months.
Arbec Forest Products Inc., the manufacturing division of Groupe Rémabec, said in statement that it's shutting down indefinitely and cutting more than 1,000 jobs. However, the number could reach 1,400 in the coming weeks, with the company citing “persistent imbalances in both access to the resource and international markets.”
Rémabec also told the Financial Post that a “feeling of exasperation is widespread” in the Quebec forestry industry over regulations that have created “an increasingly unstable ecosystem, without predictability or coherence.”