News and event information for Williams Lake, BC - as it happens.

Submitted by Bob Simpson, MLA Cariboo North

This week the legislative process worked the way it ought to with respect to one aspect of one bill on the government’s agenda: the Forest Service Providers Protection Act.

This legislation replaces the existing Woodworker’s Lien Act which did not provide protection for forestry contractors when Licensees and manufacturers defaulted on their payments or went into bankruptcy protection. Given the struggles in the forest sector and the increasing number of bankruptcies, there has been a growing demand that the government address the inadequacies of the old legislation.

Under the new Act, forestry service providers are defined as those who provide contracted services, including falling, yarding and hauling timber to owners of forest product companies. These contractors will be able to register liens under the Personal Property Security Act to ensure payment of services and they are given priority over other financial claims against the defaulting company.

The Act also creates the Forestry Service Provider Compensation Fund.  It will make funds available for contractors if the company they are in contract with goes bankrupt and is unable to pay.  There are no details about what this fund will look like.

Hopefully, this Act represents good news for the contracting sector by providing them with much needed financial protection. I say hopefully, because the regulations still have to be written and the Act will have to be tested in practice to see if it works as designed.

While we had some questions about the Fund that will be established, we supported the general intent and approach taken in this Bill with one major exception. The former Woodworkers’s Lien Act, which was to be repealed and replaced by the new legislation, actually protected individual workers and was used successfully to ensure that workers got paid and their benefits and pensions were protected when the company they worked for went bankrupt.

The new Act does not protect individual workers, only contractors. So, repealing the old Act would mean that individual workers wages, benefits and pensions would be left unprotected.

During debate this oversight was pointed out to the Minister of Forests; he acknowledged it and instructed government members to vote against the section of the new legislation that would repeal the old act and strip workers of their protection.

This is how our legislative democracy is supposed to work.

Kudos to Minister Bell for responding appropriately to the constructive feedback presented to him by the Opposition.

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