The B.C. government is having second thoughts about area-based tenures – a move that could have implications for plans to rebuild a sawmill at Burns Lake.
As part of its mid-term timber supply review, the B.C. government planned to make legislative changes to move away from volume-based licensing to area-based licensing, which would tie the timber of an area to specific mills.
But the government is now having second thoughts and wants to defer the move, pending more public consultation.
“This is an important piece of public policy; however, it has become clear to me that greater public engagement is needed before legislative amendments can proceed,” Steve Thomson Forests, Lands and Natural Resource Operations Minister, said Tuesday.
“We will therefore be initiating a process of broader public consultation this summer based on the recommendations of the special committee and the proposed legislation.”
The announcement was applauded by the NDP, who said the plan was flawed because it put too much power in the hands of the minister of forests to award publicly owned forests to private companies.
Forest critic Norm Macdonald said, “The act would have given the minister incredible discretionary powers to sign new tree farm licence agreements and give corporations strong private property rights over vast areas of publicly owned lands.
“We heard from industry that it suited no one’s interests to make decisions in the highly politicized environment we are currently experiencing. These decisions, which will impact our forests for generations to come, must be made in a bi-partisan and transparent manner.”
It’s not clear what reconsidering the plan will mean for the planned rebuild of the Babine Forest Products sawmill in Burns Lake.
The mill went up in flames in an explosion that killed two workers in January 2012. In September 2012, Hampton Affiliates announced it would rebuild the mill.
But that plan was largely based on the government’s agreement to assure the company a timber supply through an area-based licensing scheme. That agreement became the template for the tenure reform that would see volume-based tenure replaced with area-based licensing.
