VICTORIA – The Government of British Columbia has contributed $500,000 to the Forestry Service Providers Compensation Fund.
The one-time grant is intended to protect eligible forestry and silviculture contractors and service providers in the event of licensee insolvency.
“Forestry contractors are an extremely important link in the B.C. forest sector supply chain. The compensation fund offers the confidence they need in their business and personal lives that they will get paid for work done, despite any possible licensee insolvency, and we are proud contributors,” Minister of Forests and the Minister of Natural Resource Operations and Rural Development Doug Donaldson said during the 60th annual conference of the Interior Logging Association in Kamloops, B.C.
The Forestry Service Providers Protection Act, which passed in spring 2010, protects the financial interests of timber-harvesting contractors who have provided logging and related services to licensees, and is composed of a lien and a compensation fund, explains a release.
The fund, established in the summer of 2012, totalled $5 million and was originally formed to provide relief for eligible forestry contractors who were not paid for services provided because the licensees who received services became insolvent.
As of April 24, 2018, the fund has given $484,743 in distributions related to thee insolvencies and with the 2018 grant has approximately $8 million still available.
The Forest Service Providers Compensation Fund was amended in December 2016 to add silviculture contractors and individuals growing seedlings and carrying out activities that are necessary for establishing free-growing stands under the definition of “forest service provider” under a sub-account. The one-time grant will be split evenly with $250,000 going to the general fund and an equal amount to the silviculture sub-account.
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