Photo Courtesy: Canadian Press
support for forestry

Three month stumpage fee deferral for forestry sector

Apr 30, 2020 | 12:38 PM

VICTORIA—The B.C. government announced the deferral of their Stumpage fee to help aid the forestry sector through the COVID-19 crisis.

Stumpage is the fee that operators pay the Province to harvest, buy or sell trees from Crown land.

The fee will be deferred for three months, according to the B.C. government.

“As government, we had already taken a number of steps to help forest communities and the industry because they were facing tough times even before the COVID-19 crisis came along.” — John Horgan

“Now, we’re deferring stumpage fees so companies can maintain their financial liquidity, which will not only benefit them, but ideally, forest workers and communities as well,” continued Horgan.

The deferral with interest is available to Tree Farm License, Replaceable Forest Licence and First Nations’ Woodlands License holders who are in good financial standing with the Province.

This deferral will leave eligible companies with an estimated $80 million so they can pay employees, contractors and other bills.