Friday, July 31, 2020, Afternoon — Committee A
Thank you for the question moving into the coast forest sector revitalization. Yes, it was a good day when Mosaic decided to return to harvesting because they felt it was economically viable and feasible and, of course, the majority of that is on private forest lands. We definitely kept close watch and encouraged both Mosaic and other players Mosaic was dealing with to get back to harvesting. So as far as the focus on the part of the question the member posed on export of logs off private lands, of course, that's in the venue of the federal government. I did have a call with the federal Minister of Trade, Mary Ng, back, I believe it was in February. She made it quite clear through her interactions and advice from the federal Attorney General's office that they wouldn't be amending their export regulations. And so as I said, that is federal government purview over export of private forest lands. As far as public lands are concerned, yes, we are interested in driving more logs harvested off public lands to domestic facilities, first and foremost to benefit the communities and workers who depend on that export off private forest lands. As far as public lands are concerned, yes, we are interested in driving more logs harvested off public lands to domestic facilities, to first and foremost, benefit the communities and workers who depend on that wood supply for jobs. One of the tools we were using to implement that policy was adjusting the fee-in-lieu charge. In other words, the fee in lieu — the charge that's in place for recouping revenue from logs that are exported back into B.C. directly — we changed that to an economic-based fee in lieu, depending on where the log is harvested and the economics of it. And that policy change was implemented for B.C. Timber Sales July 1 last year. We intended to collect data. It's always important to know if the intended consequences, or the outcomes, are what are intended from these kinds of policy changes. As that was implemented, then we ended up in a down market and then a strike situation — actually, the strike situation first — so we weren't able to collect enough data to implement it by December of 2019 for the remainder of the licensees on Vancouver Island. And then when the strike was resolved, we ended up in the COVID situation. Now that the industry is back on its feet, we're back on track to establish the economic-based fee in lieu December 15 of this year for timber harvesting on public lands and on the coast.
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