The B.C. government’s attempts to blame U.S. President Donald Trump for everything wrong with the province’s forestry sector ran headlong into a reality check Tuesday with the closure of a long-running pulp mill on Vancouver Island.

Forest company Domtar announced it was permanently shuttering the Crofton pulp mill, throwing more than 300 people out of work just before Christmas.

“The Crofton mill has been challenged for some time now,” the company said in a release. “Unfortunately, continued poor pricing for pulp and lack of access to affordable fibre in B.C. necessitates the closure.”

Not mentioned? Trump. Turns out, Crofton doesn’t sell its goods—absorbent packing, hygiene products and other paper products—to the Americans, and so its decline isn’t being driven by the ongoing softwood lumber tariffs.

The culprit, according to the company, is provincial forestry policies.

“None of the product from this mill goes to the United States,” said Chris Stoicheff, Domtar spokesperson. “So tariffs are not the primary factor here. We need to focus on what we can control, and that's hosting conditions in British Columbia and access to fibre in British Columbia.”

The message was echoed by the Council of Forest Industries. COFI has for months been saying that permitting delays, backlogs in First Nations-led land-use planning and environmental policies like old growth protection are bleeding........

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