Compliance Decisions Update

Road failures may impact drinking water and fish habitat

Compliance Decisions Update

Council has several mechanisms that may be used to ensure compliance with the Private Managed Forest Land Act and regulations.  Compliance mechanisms and decisions are outlined in the compliance section of this website.

The Private Managed Forest Land Act (Act) & Regulations place many requirements on the owners of private managed forest land. The Act also establishes mechanisms that may be used to ensure compliance with the requirements. The main mechanisms are consent agreements and compliance determinations.

Consent Agreements:  This blog post  describes the use of Consent Agreements.  To date, Council has entered into 18 Consent Agreements with Owners:

  • 15 with respect to Section 11 of the Council Regulation, failure to provide notice of sale within 30 days of sale
  • 3 with respect to Section 31 of the Council Regulation, failure to restock or successfully regenerate harvested areas within required timelines

Compliance Determinations: Council may determine whether or not an owner or a contractor, employee or agent of the owner contravened a provision of the Act or Regulations.  A compliance determination follows a formal investigation.  The process is set out in the Compliance Determinations Procedure Manual.

There has been one recent investigation that led to the following determination in December 2019:

  • The Owner contravened s. 22 of the Private Managed Forest Land Council Regulation (Council Regulation) by failing to deactivate a road as required, resulting in a landslide that had a material adverse effect on fish habitat.
  • The Owner contravened s. 26 of the Council Regulation that requires Council be notified within 24 hours of the Owner becoming aware that a landslide or debris flow has occurred on the owner’s land and deposited debris or sediment into a class A, B, C, D, or E stream.

Under s. 22 of the Private Managed Forest Land Act, an owner may request that Council reconsider some or all of a determination.  For the determination above, the Owner requested a reconsideration.

Council’s reconsideration decision was to uphold its 2019 determination that the Owner contravened s. 22 of the Council Regulation but determined that s. 26 of the Council Regulation was not contravened.

For more information, see the link to the Compliance Determinations webpage in the RESOURCES section below.

Some formal investigations lead to a decision of no contravention and are closed before a formal determination is carried out.

RESOURCES