Westhaven Forestry Law Links
Here are some websites that are potentially of interest to those who face legal issues related to the BC forest industry:
- The Forest Appeals Commission
The value of this site is that it contains all of the Commission’s forest practices and stumpage decisions, and is searchable. Decisions are posted in a timely manner. The site also contains the Commission’s policies and procedures, and is an essential resource for anyone with an appeal before Commission. - The Ministry of Forests and Range “Legislation and Regulations”
While this site is useful for its reasonably current forestry legislation and regulations, it also contains the Forest Practices Code of British Columbia Act and related regulations as they were immediately before their repeal. This is a valuable resource for licensees who have not yet fully transitioned to the Forest and Range Practices Act regime and who are, therefore, still subject to the Code and Code regulations as they were existed immediately prior to repeal. - Coast Appraisal Manual / Interior Appraisal Manual
These sites simply contain up-to-date, official, online copies of both Manuals, and are searchable (critical for stumpage disputes under the Manuals). - Resource Tenures and Engineering Branch
This site has an abundance of useful legal and other information. Probably the most frequently used part of this site is the Bill 13 page (including a collection of arbitration awards that goes back to 1997). However, it also contains other helpful tenure related information such as tenure transfer procedures and forms, apportionment data, TFL documents and amendments, and FSP guidance. - Canadian Legal Information Institute
This site contains links to numerous sources of general law across the country. Included are links to BC’s court decisions, legislation and orders-in-counsel. While not as current or comprehensive as the various user-fee data bases, most links are reasonably up-to-date, and do not cost anything. - SFU Library - Legal Decisions dealing with First Nations in Canada
This page contains a collection of links to most of the major aboriginal rights decisions in Canada, together with subject notes. - Aboriginal Affairs Branch – Policy
Included at this site are the various policies that guide the Ministry of Forest and Range’s approach towards its constitutional obligations of consultation and accommodation with First Nations whose interests are potentially affected by timber harvesting activities on Crown Land. - Aboriginal Affairs Branch – Agreements
To help satisfy its interim duty of consultation and accommodation with First Nations, the Ministry of Forest and Range has entered into numerous “Forest and Range Agreements” with various First Nations throughout the province to provide interim accommodation by way of timber harvesting and revenue sharing opportunities. While these agreements are fueled through the Bill 28 tenure take-back and the direct tenure award provisions under the Forest Act, they are still of significance to licensees. They may have implications for a licensee’s operating area, but may also lead to commercial opportunities for licensees to increase their timber supply. This page contains an up-to-date collection of Forest and Range Agreements. - Rory Hill’s Photo Galleries – Forestry
While not particularly legalistic in nature, this site contains an absolutely fantastic collection of industrial forestry and wilderness images from BC, including those featured on www.bcforestrylaw.com. Rory’s site also contains photographs from many other subject areas. - Gene Pecka Memorial Golf Tournament Homepage
This is the homepage for the annual Gene Pecka Memorial Golf Tournament fund raiser on behalf of the Multiple Sclerosis Society of Canada. While this is also of limited legal value, it’s for a good cause and is a lot of fun. - Rosedeer Strategies Inc. Sometimes a communications strategy is necessary to resolve issues with public policy implications. Rosedeer Strategies Inc. has significant public policy experience, and is able to provide BC businesses and associations with the strategic communications advice that is often necessary to manage public policy issues. Rosedeer partners with Innovative Research Group (www.innovativeresearch.ca) on public opinion research, completing projects for such clients as the Truck Loggers Association and Vancouver Island Economic Summit.
