BILL 40 – 2002
FORESTS STATUTES AMENDMENT ACT, 2002

HER MAJESTY, by and with the advice and consent of the Legislative Assembly of the Province of British Columbia, enacts as follows:

Forest Act

1 Section 1 (1) of the Forest Act, R.S.B.C. 1996, c. 157, is amended by adding the following definition:

"small business agreement" means

(a) a timber sale licence, or

(b) a forest licence

for which applications are or were restricted to persons registered in one or more categories of small business forest enterprises; .

2 Sections 2 to 4 are repealed.

3 Section 22 is amended

(a) by striking out "entered into under this Act", and

(b) by adding the following paragraph:

(e.1) that is a small business agreement may include provisions specifying one or more standard making bodies and requiring the holder of the licence to conduct its operations under the licence in accordance with principles, standards and criteria established by the standard making body or bodies, .

4 The following section is added:

Extension of timber sale licences

58.1 (1) The holder of a timber sale licence that is a small business agreement may apply in writing to the district manager to extend the term of the timber sale licence.

(2) The district manager must grant an extension of a prescribed duration to the holder if each of the following requirements is met:

(a) rights under the timber sale licence are not under suspension;

(b) if required by the regulations, the holder pays to the government in advance a prescribed portion of the stumpage that the district manager estimates will become payable under the timber sale licence on the timber not yet harvested at the time of the application;

(c) the holder meets other prescribed requirements.

(3) This section does not apply to a timber sale licence that provides that it may not be extended.

5 The following section is added:

Date of increase or reduction in allowable annual cut and prorating

63.2 (1) In this section, "increase or reduction" means an increase or reduction in the allowable annual cut authorized under an agreement.

(2) An increase or reduction, made by the minister, chief forester, regional manager or district manager under a provision of this Act that authorizes him or her to make the increase or decrease but does not specify or provide for a date on which the increase or reduction takes effect, must be made to take effect on either

(a) the date on which the minister, chief forester, regional manager or district manager, as the case may be, exercises the discretion to increase or reduce the allowable annual cut, or

(b) January 1 of the year following,

whichever of those dates the minister, chief forester, regional manager or district manager, as the case, may be considers reasonable in the circumstances.

(3) If the Act specifies or provides for a date on which an increase or reduction is to be effective other than January 1 of any year, or an increase or reduction is made to take effect on the date referred to in subsection (2) (a), the allowable annual cut authorized under the agreement for the calendar year of the increase or reduction is the sum, rounded to the nearest whole number, of

(a) the product obtained by multiplying the allowable annual cut before the date of the increase or reduction by the fraction obtained by dividing the number of days elapsed in the current calendar year up to and including that date by 365, and

(b) the product obtained by multiplying the increased or decreased allowable annual cut by the fraction obtained by dividing the number of days remaining in the current calendar year after that date by 365.

6 Part 4 is amended by adding the following heading after section 77:

Division 4.1 -- Small Business Agreements, Liability and Compensation .

7 The following section is added to Division 4.1:

Surrender of small business agreements

77.1 (1) The holder of a small business agreement may apply in writing to the district manager to surrender the agreement.

(2) The district manager may accept the surrender if

(a) the holder forfeits the prescribed portion of the security deposits pertaining to the small business agreement, if any forfeiture is applicable to the holder under the regulations, and

(b) other prescribed requirements have been met.

8 Section 78 (0.1) is repealed.

9 Section 79 is amended

(a) by adding the following subsections:

(1.1) Subject to subsection (1.2), for the purposes of performing obligations referred to in subsection (1) (b) and (c), the holder may enter onto Crown land.

(1.2) Subject to the regulations under subsection (1.4), if any, the district manager may impose requirements he or she considers necessary or desirable to be met by the holder as conditions of entering onto the Crown land, including that the holder provide security.

(1.3) The holder must comply with any requirements imposed under subsection (1.2).

(1.4) For the purposes of subsection (1.2), the Lieutenant Governor in Council may make regulations

(a) limiting the circumstances under which the district manager may exercise the discretion under subsection (1.2),

(b) specifying the form and amount of the security, and

(c) specifying the circumstances under which the security may be realized. , and

(b) by repealing subsection (2) and substituting the following:

(2) In this section,

(a) references to an agreement are to be read as including references to a cutting permit, road permit or road use permit issued to the holder of the agreement, and

(b) "holder" includes a former holder.

10 Section 146 (3) is amended by striking out "subsection (1) (a)" and substituting "subsection (1) (a) and (b)".

 
Forest Practices Code of British Columbia Act

11 Section 42 (2) of the Forest Practices Code of British Columbia Act, R.S.B.C. 1996, c. 159, is amended by striking out everything before paragraph (a) and substituting the following:

(2) If the district manager approves or gives effect to a forest development plan or amendment under subsection (1), the district manager may immediately approve or give effect to a silviculture prescription or amendment if the district manager determines that .

12 Section 44 is amended by adding "or give effect to" after "the district manager may approve".

13 Section 60.1 is amended

(a) in subsection (1) by adding the following paragraph:

(a.1) the person prepares the road layout and design, , and

(b) by adding the following subsection:

(1.1) A road referred to in subsection (1) (a) need not be wholly contained in a cutblock if it is constructed to harvest timber under a woodlot licence.

14 Section 60.2 is amended

(a) by repealing subsection (2) and substituting the following:

(2) Unless the district manager gives notice under subsection (6) of this section, the requirement under section 60 (1) that a person obtain the district manager's approval for a road layout and design before modifying a road referred to in section 60 (1), for a stream culvert that is not a major culvert, does not apply to that person if the person prepares the road layout and design and the modification

(a) is not carried out in a community watershed, a fish stream or a direct tributary to a fish stream, or

(b) is carried out in a community watershed, a fish stream or a direct tributary to a fish stream, is of an emergency nature and timing windows and measures are in place, or if not in place, the person

(i) in accordance with subsection (3), notifies a designated environment official of the proposed work, including the location of the work, the date the work is estimated to start and the potential impact on forest resources, and

(ii) complies with subsection (5). , and

(b) in subsections (3), (4) and (5) by striking out "under subsection (2) (c) (iii)" and substituting "under subsection (2) (b) (i)".

15 Section 212.1 (1) is amended by striking out "for the purpose of approving" and substituting "for the purpose of approving or giving effect to".

Clarification of allowable annual cut for Forest Act licences

16 (1) In this section, "licence" means a forest licence, timber sale licence, tree farm licence or woodlot licence, each as defined in the Forest Act, that was in effect under that Act on January 1, 2002 and remains in effect under that Act on the day this section comes into force.

(2) For all purposes of the Forest Act and the regulations under that Act, the allowable annual cut authorized under a licence as of January 1, 2002 is conclusively deemed to be as specified in the records of the Ministry of Forests.

(3) If any of the records referred to in subsection (2) contain an error or conflict, the regional manager may issue a written statement correcting the error or resolving the conflict.

(4) The written statement under subsection (3) is conclusive for the purposes of subsection (2).

Commencement

17 Sections 1, 4 and 6 to 8 come into force by regulation of the Lieutenant Governor in Council.