2002 Legislative Session: 3rd Session, 37th Parliament
FIRST READING


The following electronic version is for informational purposes only.
The printed version remains the official version.


MR. B. SUFFREDINE

BILL M 205 -- 2002

FOREST WORK SECURITY INTEREST ACT

Definitions and interpretation

1 (1) In this Act

"Forest Products" means logs or timber which have been cut or cut and trimmed or peeled but not further processed;

"forest work" means all work incidental to a timber harvesting operation, whether carried out at a harvesting site or a handling site and includes cutting, skidding, felling, hauling, scaling, banking, driving, running, rafting, towing and booming logs;

"forest work security interest" means a security interest arising under section 2;

"forest worker" means a person engaged or employed to do forest work and includes a person engaged under a contract who supplies equipment or employs others to do forest work;

"handling site" means a place where forest products are held for storage, booming, sorting, transporting, whether located at the harvesting site, a processing site, or some intermediate location and, where the site serves numerous owners, the forest products of each owner are physically segregated;

"harvesting site" means the place where timber and logs are cut;

"hauling" means transporting forest products

(a) within a harvesting site,

(b) between a harvesting site and a handling site, or

(c) between two handling sites;

"obligor" means a person who owes money to a forest worker in respect to forest work;

"owner" when used with reference to forest products means the owner of the forest products at the time a forest work security interest attaches;

"security interest" has the same meaning as in the Personal Property Security Act.

Security interest for work

2 To secure the payment of money owed to a forest worker for forest work, the forest worker has a security interest in all forest products

(a) located at the harvesting site or handling site where the forest work was performed, and

(b) located at any handling site to which forest products are normally hauled from a place referred to in paragraph (a)

that are

(c) owned by the obligor, or

(d) owned by a person that engaged the obligor to carry out the forest work.

Attachment of security interest

3 (1) A forest work security interest attaches when the forest work for which the money is owed is performed.

(2) A forest work security interest does not attach to the proceeds of forest products.

(3) A forest work security interest that attaches to forest products described in paragraph (d) of section 2 is limited to the amount owed from time to time by their owner to the obligor.

(4) For the purposes of subsection (1), hauling is deemed to be formed at its point of origin.

Perfection and priority of security interest

4 (1) Subject to this section, the provisions of the Personal Property Security Act respecting the perfection and priority of security interests apply to a forest work security interest as if it had been created by agreement.

(2) A perfected forest work security interest, to the extent that it secures money owed to a forest worker up to a maximum of $20,000, has priority over any other security interest in the same forest products, other than a perfected purchase money security interest.

(3) A forest work security interest that has received priority under subsection (2) shall receive no further priority under subsection (2) with respect to the same, or additional, forest products except to the extent that

(a) priority was not received for the maximum amount set out in subsection (2), or

(b) the security interest secures money owed for forest work performed after the priority was received.

(4) Where funds become available toward satisfying any claim secured by a forest work security interest, whether through an enforcement measure taken against the forest products or otherwise, and there is a competition between perfected forest work security interests

(a) where the funds are insufficient to satisfy all the claims, to the extent that they are entitled to priority under subsection (2), then all the competing claims are entitled to share ratably in the funds with the pro rata share of each claim based upon the amount of the claim remaining unpaid.

Termination of security interest

5 (1) A forest work security interest in forest products becomes unattached with respect to those forest products when

(a) the forest products cease to be located at either

(i) the place they were located when the security interest attached, or

(ii) a handling site to which forest products are normally from a place referred to in subparagraph (i), or

(b) the forest products cease to be forest products through processing.

(2) Despite subsection (1), a forest work security interest remains unattached while the forest products are being hauled.

Remedies

6 (1) A forest work security interest may be enforced under Part 5 of the Personal Property Security Act, but any remedy involving the physical seizure of forest products must be exercised only through a person authorized to act under a writ of seizure and sale to which the Court Order Enforcement Act applies.

(2) A person who has a forest work security interest may apply ex parte for an injunction restraining the owner of the forest products from any act

(a) that would result in a loss of priority under the Personal Property Security Act, or

(b) that would cause the forest work security interest to become unattached unders section 5.

(3) Where a forest work security interest has attached to forest products described in paragraph (d) of section 2, and the obligor is in default, the forest worker may give to the owner of the forest products a notice, setting out particulars of

(a) the identity of the obligor and the forest worker,

(b) the forest products to which the security interest has attached, and

(c) the default and the amount claimed.

(4) Unless the court otherwise orders, where a forest worker has given a notice under subsection (3)

(a) no subsequent payment by the owner to the obligor operates to reduce the amount owed by the owner to the obligor for the purposes of section 3 (3), and

(b) the owner may, without liability to the obligor, refuse to make any further payments to the obligor until the default specified in the notice is cured.

Application of Personal Property Security Act

7 (1) The Personal Property Security Act applies to a forest work security interest.

(2) Section 72 of the Personal Property Security Act applies to notice given under section 6 (3).

(3) If there is a conflict between this Act and the Personal Property Security Act, this Act prevails.

Regulations

8 The Lieutenant Governor in Council may make regulations including regulations

(a) from time to time substituting a different dollar amount for the one set out in section 4 (1),

(b) respecting the description of forest products for the purposes of the Personal Property Security Act,

(c) designating particular activities to constitute forest work for the purposes of this Act, in addition to the activities set out in the definition of that expression.

Repeal

9 The Woodworker Lien Act and Tugboat Worker Lien Act are repealed.

Commencement

10 This Act comes into force by regulation of the Lieutenant Governor in Council.


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