1997 Legislative Session: 2nd Session, 36th Parliament
FIRST READING
The following electronic version is
for informational purposes only.
The printed version remains the official version.
MR. NEUFELD
1 Section 1 of the Forest Renewal Act, R.S.B.C. 1996, c. 160, is hereby amended by adding the following definitions:
"forest district" means an area that has been defined to be a forest district under the Forest Act, R.S.B.C. 1996, c. 157;
"forestry infrastructure" means infrastructure primarily intended to facilitate the economically and ecologically sustainable use of the province's forests;
"infrastructure" means the permanent installations and utilities necessary to permit and to sustain activities and purposes that are either industrial, or environmental restorative, where these purposes and activities may be either continuing or transient, and includes:
(a) any building or underground structure, including warehousing;
(b) any road, artery, intersection, overpass or underpass;
(c) any bridge;
(d) any airfield or helicopter landing area;
(e) any river-, lake- or sea-port facility;
(f) any dam, aquifer, irrigation or sewer system, including water purification plants;
(g) any electrical grid or component of an electrical grid, such as a transformer station, and energy transmission lines;
(h) any communications grid, broadcast, transmission or retransmission tower, antenna or unit, whether copper-wire, fiber-optical or radio-communications based;
(i) any waste-handling or effluent treatment system;
(j) any silviculture-related facility;
(k) any forest-fire control or prevention facility; and,
(l) any fence, gate, or fencing system.
2 Section 4 (3) is hereby renumbered as section 4 (4).
3 Section 4 (2) is hereby renumbered as section 4 (3).
4 The following section is hereby added, after section 4 (1):
4 (2)
(a) Subject to paragraph (b), for the purposes of subsection (1), "regionally equitable" means that, in a given fiscal year, the total expenditures made by Forest Renewal BC in each forest district of the province must be in the same proportion to the total expenditures made by Forest Renewal BC in that year for the whole of the province, as the revenues raised by Forest Renewal BC in that forest district of the province are to revenues raised by Forest Renewal BC, in that year, in the whole of the province.
(b) For the purposes of paragraph (a), "in the same proportion" means, "in equal proportion," however, the equality of the two proportions may vary:
(i) with the materiality of the accounted-for sums, in accordance with generally accepted accounting principles, and
(ii) so that the percentage of expenditures made in each forest district of the province (as a percentage of Forest Renewal BC's total expenditures that year) does not differ from the percentage of revenues received from that forest district (as a percentage of Forest Renewal BC's total revenues that year) by more than plus or minus 5 percentage points; provided that, where such a surplus or deficit occurs in a forest district in one fiscal year, a countervailing deficit or surplus (as the case may be) shall be planned for Forest Renewal Fund expenditures in that forest district, for the next fiscal year.
(c) For greater certainty, in subsection (1), "expenditures" include expenditures on forestry infrastructure.
5 Section 10 (8) is hereby amended by replacing the period at the end of paragraph (b) by a comma, and adding the following paragraph:
(c) a report showing:
(i) the percentage of Forest Renewal BC's revenues raised that year from each forest district of the province, as a fraction of its total revenues for that year for the whole of the province,
(ii) the dollar amounts represented by each of the percentages reported under subparagraph (i),
(iii) the percentage of Forest Renewal BC's expenditures made that year in each forest district of the province, as a fraction of its total expenditures for that year for the whole of the province, and,
(iv) the dollar amounts represented by each of the percentages reported under subparagraph (iii).
This Bill provides that in order to carry out the purposes of the Forest Renewal Act, R.S.B.C. 1996, c. 160, Forest Renewal BC must plan and implement a program of expenditures that is "regionally equitable," in the sense that reinvestment in each forest district of BC must be in proportion to the fraction of its revenue that Forest Renewal BC derives from that forest district.
This Bill further provides that Forest Renewal BC may direct its expenditures in a region towards projects that create or maintain the infrastructure necessary to forest industries.
This Bill finally provides that the proportionate percentage amounts raised as revenue by Forest Renewal BC and spent in reinvestment by it in each forest district in every year, shall be reported annually to the Legislative Assembly in a clear manner.
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