NEWS RELEASE
For Immediate Release 2008FOR0164-001853 Dec. 10, 2008	Ministry of Forests and Range
BC TIMBER SALES BENEFITS MORE LOGGERS, WOOD PROCESSORS

VICTORIA – Recent regulatory changes to BC Timber Sales (BCTS) will streamline administration, reduce transaction costs for the organization and its customers, and encourage more value-added producers to register with BCTS, Forests and Range Minister Pat Bell announced today.

 

Effective immediately, the BC Timber Sales Regulation lifts the freeze on registration in Category 2 that has been in place since June 2003. Category 2 is a class of registration in BCTS for value-added and independent lumber producers, but excludes major quota holders.

 

“Lifting the Category 2 freeze creates and opens up new opportunities for independent lumber and value-added producers to bid on timber sales licences and fibre supplies that were previously unavailable to them,” said Bell. “It is now easier for these entrepreneurs to register and compete for timber opportunities provided by BCTS.”

 

In addition to unfreezing Category 2, the following changes to the BCTS registration system were made:

 

·        New registrants no longer need to pay an initial registration fee of $250 and existing registrants no longer have to pay the fee to renew their registration every two years.

 

·        Individuals or companies no longer need to have at least one year of logging experience or a timber processing facility to qualify for registration in Category 1.

 

“This regulatory change also consolidates advertising and deposit management regulations to improve the efficiency and effectiveness of BC Timber Sales and the quality of service provided to its customers,” said Bell.

 

Advertising and deposit management rules for BCTS timber sale licences were previously set out by the Advertising, Deposits, Disposition and Extension Regulation. They are now rolled into the BC Timber Sales Regulation, resulting in a single, more understandable regulation that will also help reduce program delivery costs.

 

BC Timber Sales was founded in 2003 with a mandate that includes competitively auctioning timber from public land across British Columbia. In its first five years, BCTS offered more than 73 million cubic metres of timber to the market, sold 63 million cubic metres and generated $430 million in net revenue for the Province.

 

Complete information about the BC Timber Sales program is available online at www.for.gov.bc.ca/bcts/.

 

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Media contact:	Jennifer McLarty Ministry of Forests and Range 250 387-4592
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