B.C. Government Redesigns Forest Policy

On March 26, 2003, the B.C. Minister of Forests announced a "forestry revitalization plan" aimed at curing the last decade of difficulties experienced by B.C.’s forest sector, which have caused significant job decline, major loss of Crown revenues, 27 permanent mill closures, poor return on corporate capital employed and a lack of new investment. The Government’s strategy to revitalize the forest sector includes a new "results-based" Forest Practices Code (see our December 2002 issue), the creation of a "working forest" to stabilize the land base for forest activities, and the "revitalization plan". This third component consists of three pieces of legislation (the "New Acts"): the Forestry Revitalization Act (which became law on March 31, 2003); the Forest Statutes Amendment Act, 2003; and the Forest (Revitalization) Amendment Act, 2003 (the latter two Amendment Acts are at first reading and thus not yet passed as of April 7, 2003). According to the Minister, the New Acts set the