Founded in 1940, company blames U.S. tariffs, dumping of imported products
A Quebec furniture maker has become the latest victim of intensifying trade tensions and cheap foreign imports, as South Shore Furniture shuts its doors and cuts more than a hundred jobs.
The long-standing family business says the current environment has made manufacturing in Canada “unsustainable,” according to CTV News.
The company, founded in 1940 and based in Sainte-Croix, Que., is eliminating 126 positions and ceasing operations. In a statement, South Shore Furniture said its sales have plunged by 77 per cent in recent months, blaming “massive dumping of imported products” and U.S. tariffs that “have caused a collapse in prices, making local production unsustainable.”
The company stressed the closure is the “result of an unprecedented crisis in the Canadian furniture industry.”
In addition to its Sainte-Croix base, the manufacturer operated plants in Coaticook, in the Eastern Townships, and in Juárez, Mexico, along with three distribution centres in the United States, CTV News reports.
Industry warns of ‘flood’ of subsidized wood products
South Shore’s collapse comes as wood and furniture manufacturers warn that Canadian producers are being undercut by a surge of low-priced imports from Asia. Jean‑François Dufresne, president and CEO of Preverco and a member of The Canadian Wood Products Alliance, told CTV News that Canada is being inundated with inexpensive wood products from overseas, with Chinese goods in particular underpricing domestic offerings because they benefit from government support.
“In Canada, my company needs to make a profit every year to survive or else we’re out of business, we’re no longer around,” Dufresne said in an interview.
“In China, the whole country needs to make a profit, not necessarily in an industry or a sector. So, they’ll be giving subsidies, for example, to the wood industry because it employs a lot of people often in remote areas so it’s a good thing for the country to keep these people employed. They don’t need to make a profit.”
He told CTV News that parts of the lumber sector have seen sales fall by about 50 per cent on a square-foot basis compared with a decade ago, a decline he links directly to competition from heavily subsidized imports. The Canadian Wood Products Alliance argues that this pressure is contributing to plant shutdowns and layoffs across the country, echoing the situation at South Shore.
Alliance presses Ottawa for tariffs
In response, the alliance is urging the federal government to move quickly on protective measures. It is calling for provisional tariffs on imported wood products, arguing that without immediate trade remedies, more Canadian firms will follow South Shore Furniture into closure.
Federal Finance Minister François‑Philippe Champagne announced earlier this month that Ottawa has instructed the Canadian International Trade Tribunal to investigate global imports of wood cabinets and vanities, hardwood flooring and storage furniture. The probe is aimed at determining whether the influx of foreign goods is harming Canadian producers.
The alliance says it welcomes the launch of the inquiry but says that only the swift imposition of tariffs can stem further damage, pointing to existing job losses and shuttered businesses as evidence that the situation has already reached a critical point, says CTV News.
