I would not be surprised if Canadian lumber was going to China. I believe a lot of Alaskan lumber, if not the majority of it, was China bound (this may have been close to two decades ago though when I had heard that).
Canadians are so stupid that we have allowed raw logs to be sold to Chinese offshore lumber mill ships, to be sold back to us, instead of insisting that the value-added processes be kept on-shore so that we have good-paying jobs for our own citizens.
> so that we have good-paying jobs for our own citizens.
Protectionism isn't always a good idea. Doing so would've made the final lumber output more expensive for Canadian consumers.
Automation is coming for the good-paying jobs sooner or later, anyways. The solution wasn't/isn't to ban outsourcing/automation, it's to better distribute the gains from outsourcing/automation across society.
The better mills have amazing automation. Penetrating scan of the log and then laser-guided slicing and dicing to maximize wood usage and profitability.
Now if only the lumber were properly dried instead of shipped slopping wet. (Actually, I suspect the kiln-dried lumber is destined for wealthy foreign markets; we locals get the c-grade crap. I have spent literally more than an hour picking through stacks to find enough good lumber to build a shed.)
The kiln drying process is exactly why you get what you get. When you crank the kiln to 11 in order to get the most throughput out of it you get residual stress and bent boards.
A covered pile outdoors or in a warehouse will yield straighter lumber (or just don't crank the kiln to 11) but that is not economically viable for random pine that people frame things with.
Canadians know that - they have only to look at dairy. Milk is probably fine from a consumer perspective (just not if you want to get into farming it), but whether deliberately or as a side-effect it cripples cheese.
