Photo Courtesy, Canadian Press

By Veronica Beltran

support for forestry

Province announces additional supports for forestry sector

Jun 12, 2020 | 6:00 AM

ckpgVICTORIA— The Province says that it is taking additional action to help support people, communities and forest companies dealing with hardships due to the COVID-19 crisis.

Changes to the Manufactured Forest Products Regulation (MFPR) and the Coast-wide implementation of the variable fee-in-lieu of manufacture on log exports that were scheduled to come into force on July 1, 2020 are being postponed until September 30th, and December 2020.

In a release by the Ministry of Forests, Lands, Natural Resource Operations and Rural Development it says that the forestry industry has been impacted by COVID-19 globally an that “Delaying the MFPR and fee-in-lieu provides B.C. forest companies with more time to prepare for and adjust their business models to the upcoming regulatory changes.”

The MFPR was introduced in 2003 and defines the criteria that products must meet in order to be considered manufactured under the Forest Act. Currently logs that are squared off up to a maximum dimension of 43 by 43 centimetres are categorized as a sawn-wood product and can be exported without further manufacture.

As of September 30, 2020 the amended regulation will change the maximum dimension of lumber to be considered a sawn-wood product to 30.5 by 30.5 centimetres, requiring further processing of lumber prior to being eligible for export.

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Additionally, the regulation amendments will require that in the Coast area, lumber that is made from Western red cedar or cypress must be fully manufactured to be eligible for export, or the seller or exporter must obtain an exemption from the manufacturing requirement and pay a new fee-in-lieu of manufacture to the Province. This will come into effect in December of 2020.