The BC Truck Loggers Association is pleased to share and invite you to access the newly developed B.C. Timber Harvest Rate Model. The tool was built using data provided by contractors as a joint project of the TLA, ILA and NWLA. The tool calculates the hourly rates for equipment used in BC’s forest industry. It’s designed to give contractors a baseline rate for a selected piece of equipment, serving as a starting point. The rates in the model reflect the required revenues of a contractor who runs a reasonably efficient operation; however, they may vary based on specific operations. The parameters (such as labour and fuel) can be adjusted in the model to calculate rates tailored to specific needs.
Please note that this model is ever-changing and not meant to be static. Based on user feedback, it will be updated and refined over time to ensure that it meets contractors’ needs. To ensure this model works for contractors, we need their continuing input. Please share your thoughts on the model – what works, what might need some tweaks, and your overall impressions.
To access the model and create an account, go to bctimberharvest.ca.
The BCTS Review that was launched in January 2025, and co-chaired by Brian Frenkel, Lenny Joe and George Abbott, is nearing an end for public input intake. The BC government describes this initiative as a periodic review to ensure BCTS is evolving in an ever-changing marketplace while meeting its mandate commitments. The reality is that BCTS performance has been seriously impacted over the last few years. This review comes as the Premier seeks to meet his mandated target for a timber harvest of 45 million m3. Raising the BCTS harvest off its historic lows will help the Premier in his drive to 45!
New support for forestry-sector manufacturers in the province is creating sustainable jobs, strengthening local supply chains, establishing new made-in-B.C. products and reinforcing B.C.’s position as a leader in mass-timber innovation. …Through the BC Manufacturing Jobs Fund (BCMJF), the Government of B.C. is contributing as much as $11 million toward four forestry-sector capital projects in the province. The projects are helping B.C.-based forestry-product manufacturers grow their businesses by constructing new production facilities, purchasing new equipment and adding new high-value product lines, while creating and protecting hundreds of jobs.
As of 2024 there are 2,500 sawmills in the U.S. and 850 in Canada. However, these numbers have to be looked at in context of housing starts in both countries. An interesting number: The rebuilding of 16,000 houses that burnt down in California require 4,300 fully loaded eight-axle trailer trucks with dimensioned lumber. We must be innovative and need more skilled workers. We should have a few smaller mills and/or machinery producing metric size timber for Europe and Japan. …We cannot change what is happening in the US, but despite an executive order from higher up, many mills in the US are suffering from a steady lack of timber supply and do not have the manpower or loggers required to steadily feed some of the mills. In Montana for example, 36 mills have closed over the last years because of a lack of timber supply, as well as a lack of loggers.
At the Council of Forest Industries convention, Premier David Eby underscored the provincial government’s commitment to forestry as a major project — and made it clear that forestry will be treated with the same focus and urgency, saying, “This is a shared project that we can get to that 45 million (cubic metre) target, which we all know is absolutely essential.” …Eby’s commitment to a “whole of government” approach is exactly what the sector needs. …We applaud Forest Minister Ravi Parmar’s recent announcements… Equally important is ensuring BCTS delivers its full potential. Consistently hitting 90 per cent or more of its annual harvest target is critical to a thriving wood products industry that supports communities and workers throughout the province. We also can’t lose sight of reconciliation. Increasing the distribution of stumpage fees to First Nations is one achievable step that would help advance shared prosperity and strengthen Indigenous participation in the sector.
CALGARY — The one constant of Trump’s tariff plan seems to be that it is in a constant state of flux. “The time is now to start planning for what those impacts could possibly be and develop the mitigation strategies and tracking mechanisms…so that as they (tariffs) evolve in real time you are prepared to deal with them,” said Rick Moffat. Moffat moderated a webinar panel recently on legal and practical strategies for managing the impacts of the tariffs on construction projects in Canada. …Stressing the importance of detailed contingency plans that account for potential cost hikes caused by tariffs, Bulut Cinar said contractors would benefit by including “multiple scenarios” illustrating how their contingencies help manage their costs. …If contractors consider delay-causing tariffs a force majeure event, but the contract deals with tariffs differently they might be “precluding themselves” from compensation, he added.
The Forest Enhancement Society of BC has given over $5 million for 18 projects in the Cariboo Region. Executive Director Jason Fisher said the Society distributes the money on behalf of the Province to invest in Forest Management activities related primarily to two major functions. “There’s the wildfire risk reduction, which involves going in and removing potentially some of the crown closure, removing some of the stems, some woody debris off the ground and making forest stands more resilient in the event of wildfire or less likely a wildfire that occurs in those stands would lead to more catastrophic wildfires.” Fisher said the other major function is wood recovery and utilization. In damaged stands, or post harvesting “we will help support applicants in going in, collecting that wood [debris] and bringing it to facilities like pulp mills or pellet plants to generate economic opportunities.”
A temporary closure will take place at Pipi7íyekw/Joffre Lakes Park to provide time and space for members of the Líl̓wat Nation and N͛Quatqua to reconnect with the land and carry out cultural and spiritual practices. Pipi7íyekw/Joffre Lakes Park has become one of the busiest parks in the province. As more people go to the park, there is a need for enhanced visitor-use management, ensuring the park is not degraded by heavy use. Temporary closures to the park for recreational visitors will occur from April 25 until May 16, 2025. Beginning Saturday, May 17, adults and youth older than 12 will require a free day-use pass to visit the park. …The park is collaboratively managed with Líl̓wat Nation and N’Quatqua with the primary goal of maintaining the natural environment, and so the Nations can continue their cultural practices on their territory. 
The Ancient Forest Alliance (AFA) and Endangered Ecosystems Alliance (EEA) are calling for better protection of old-growth forests from the BC Government. [They want the] province to refocus their measures, implement their draft biodiversity, and Ecosystem Health Framework to ensure a transition to a sustainable forest industry. Executive Director of EEA Ken Wu said there is two directions the government can go in response to tariff threats from the U.S. “Either take the easy but foolish route by falling back on the destructive status quo of old-growth logging and raw low exports, or instead take the opportunity to invest in a modernized, sustainable, value-added, second-growth forest industry that is the future of forestry in BC, while protecting the last old-growth forests.” …The groups are also issuing a warning which commercial logging must not be permitted in protected areas under the guise of wildfire risk reduction.
The Sḵwx̱wú7mesh Úxwumixw (Squamish Nation) is calling for better education on Stanley Park’s Indigenous history after a First Nations group threw their connection into question during a logging protest earlier this month. A “sacred fire” lit March 15 was kept ablaze for over a month at Brockton Park’s totem poles by a woman who identified, according to protest group Save Stanley Park, as a “matriarch” of the land. The woman claimed to be a descendent of “Portuguese Joe”, an early B.C. settler with Musqueam lineage, and was in protest of the Vancouver Park Board’s ongoing project to remove hundreds of trees affected by the looper moth disease. Squamish Nation elected councillor Wilson Williams says the claims are still yet to be verified, and his own community is left reeling at the group’s failure to address the history of the Squamish people that dates back thousands of years within the park.
Silvacom is hosting a free webinar titled “Pipeline Habitat Restoration: Strategies and Innovations” MAY 14, 2025 9:00 AM MDT | 11 EST. This event will bring together industry experts, environmental scientists, and key stakeholders to discuss the latest developments and best practices in habitat restoration in areas affected by pipeline projects. Join Our Webinar on Pipeline Habitat Restoration: Successfully Navigating Key Challenges of New SRP Requirements on Active Pipelines (Upper Smoky Sub-Regional Plan). With Alberta’s Sub-Regional Planning Process introducing new regulatory requirements for caribou habitat restoration, the energy sector must adapt and implement habitat restoration on active pipeline corridors. Unlike decommissioned or abandoned pipelines, active right-of-ways (ROW) present unique operational, regulatory, and ecological challenges. This webinar will explore the complexities of meeting habitat restoration objectives while balancing: Ecological restoration goals; Operational efficiencies; Regulatory requirements; and Indigenous community and stakeholder values.
The BC Council of Forest Industries (COFI) is now accepting applications for the 2025 Forestry Scholarships. As part of our commitment to supporting the next generation of forestry professionals, COFI will award 10 scholarships of $2,000 each to students from across British Columbia pursuing post-secondary studies or skilled trades training related to the forest sector. The scholarships are open to BC residents entering a forestry-related program at an accredited post-secondary institution in fall 2025 or spring 2026—whether you’re from a rural community, coastal town, or urban centre.
ʔakisq̓nuk First Nation is among communities that have taken a proactive approach to reducing risk ahead of B.C.’s next wildfire season, supported by Indigenous-owned resource management firm Nupqu and $365,000 from the Forest Enhancement Society of BC (FESBC). East of the Nation’s reserve and just north of Fairmont Hot Springs, work will continue through summer and into fall as the ʔakisq̓nuk community collaborates with foresters and the province to treat natural fire fuel and ensure a safer future for locals. It’s become a successful project, first proposed back in 2018. According to ʔakisq̓nuk Chief Donald Sam, fire suppression in these forests for more than a century has challenged and restricted the health of these ecosystems.
A decision by the Supreme Court of British Columbia to reject a $75-million compensation claim made by a logging company that once operated on Haida Gwaii could have reverberations across the province as the government continues its reconciliation efforts with First Nations… A prime example is the $84 million in compensation that the B.C. government agreed to pay MacMillan Bloedel in 1999 after the government created a number of new parks on Vancouver Island. In seeking $75 million in compensation for alleged losses of portions of its logging tenures on Haida Gwaii, however, Teal Cedar Products Ltd., a subsidiary of the Teal-Jones Group, tried to argue something entirely different: that changes to where it could log, how it could log and when it could log amounted to a form of expropriation for which the company should be compensated millions in taxpayer dollars.