WATCH: Eby blames Trump for Interfor HQ leaving BC

Update: Asked today about Interfor moving its corporate headquarters from Burnaby to the United States, Premier David Eby pointed the finger at Donald Trump and US tariffs.

"I try to understand the rationale of the President in attacking forest families in our province in this very specific way…and preferring to import timber from Russia with lower tariff rates than from British Columbia. I don't believe that Canadian softwood lumber is a national security threat to the Americans, but I would say that Russia is. And so I try to find the logic in attacking your closest trading partner, knowing that there is obviously no logic to it," said Eby.

"It's not happy news. I understand the pressure that forestry companies are under, as a result of these tariffs, trying to make these decisions," concluded Eby, adding "we're working closely with industry and with other provinces to try to mitigate these kinds of impacts."

It is not immediately clear how US tariffs on softwood lumber, which pre-date Donald Trump, are directly driving corporate office jobs to the United States.

Update: BC Conservative Leader Kerry-Lynne Findlay responded to the news of Interfor's HQ relocation:

Reactions are flowing in as BC-founded lumber company Interfor is reportedly moving its current headquarters in Burnaby to the United States, according to a memo first reported by the Financial Post.

According to the Post, Interfor is set to move its corporate operations to a suburb of Atlanta. While the company purportedly said that no layoffs are planned, it did not rule out relocation of positions to its new headquarters in Georgia. There is no word on when such moves could take place, nor how many positions might be affected.

Conservative MLA Harman Bhangu (Langley–Abbotsford) took to X to say the move represented “another kick in the gut for forestry workers, another hit to our economy, and another reminder that too many young British Columbians are wondering if they’ll ever find a good-paying resource job in the province they grew up in.”

Former BC Conservative Leader and current MLA John Rustad pointed to a string of forestry jobs being lost in BC: “More than thirty mills have already shut down or been indefinitely curtailed under this NDP government. Fifteen thousand forestry jobs have disappeared since 2022.”

Interfor began in 1967 in Whonnock, BC near Maple Ridge as the Yorkston Lumber Company, later changing its name to Whonnock Industries. After a series of acquisitions, in 1987 the company changed its name to International Forest Products Limited (Interfor).

 In the early 2000s, Intefor sold various BC assets, while expanding into Washington State and Oregon. Later in the 2010s, Interfor began buying sawmills in Arkansas, Georgia, and South Carolina.

While the company’s roots are in BC, today the province represents only 17 per cent of its business. As of May 2026, 58 per cent of Interfor’s operations are in the United States.