Forestry Litigation

Counsel from Hunter Litigation Chambers appear regularly before the Forest Appeals Commission, the British Columbia Supreme Court and the British Columbia Court of Appeal on forestry related matters. Our lawyers have represented major licensees and other forest companies on a broad range of administrative, litigation and arbitration disputes dealing with a variety of forestry related subjects including opportunities to be heard under the Forest and Range Practices Act and the Forest Act, stumpage appeals, compensation claims against the government and arbitrations under the Timber Harvesting Contract and Subcontract Regulation.

Our forestry practice is headed by John Hunter, Q.C. John has been recognized as a leading practitioner in forestry law by the Lexpert rating service. In addition to the broad based work described above, John has also acted for the forest sector in responding to aboriginal rights and title claims for more than 20 years.

Some of the recent forestry cases our counsel have handled include:

• Western Forest Products Limited v. British Columbia (British Columbia Court of Appeal, 2009), a successful appeal of a challenge to a decision of the Forest Appeals Commission relating to whether it was unsuitable to appraise a licensee using an appraisal log dump that was unavailable for use by any other licensee
   
• Canadian Forest Products Limited v. British Columbia and the Forest Appeals Commission (British Columbia Supreme Court, 2009), a successful appeal of a decision of the Forest Appeals Commission relating to the authority of the Minister to retroactively change stumpage rates for timber that had already been scaled.
   
• British Columbia v. Foster Forest Products Limited and others (British Columbia Supreme Court, 2008), successfully represented two licensees in a summary trial relating to the scope of the lien created in favour of the Crown by s. 130(1)(d) of the Forest Act.
   
• Hayes Forest Services Limited v. Teal Cedar Products Ltd. and others (British Columbia Court of Appeal, 2008), an appeal that established, among other things, the jurisdiction of an arbitrator appointed under the Timber Harvesting Contract and Subcontract Regulation to deal with equitable remedies
   
• Hayes Forest Services Ltd v. Weyerhaeuser Company Limited (British Columbia Court of Appeal, 2008), successfully represented a major licensee in upholding an arbitration award in its favour in a dispute concerning a timber supply execution agreement and the treatment of certain road construction costs under that agreement.
   
• Powell Daniels Contracting v. Cascadia Forest Products Ltd. (Arbitration, 2008), successfully defended a fairness objection raised by a contractor in response to a Forestry Revitalization Proposal made under the Timber Harvesting Contract and Subcontract Regulation
   
• In the matter of the Request by TimberWest Forest Corp under s. 32 of the Private Managed Forest Land Act for reconsideration of a Determination made by the Private Managed Forest Land Council, dated September 27, 2007 (Private Managed Forest Land Council, 2008) – prepared submissions for TimberWest Forest Corp. to the Council seeking reconsideration of a determination that TimberWest failed to exercise due diligence to prevent a contravention of s.18 of the Private Managed Forest Land Regulation. On reconsideration, the original finding was reversed and the Council found that TimberWest had taken all reasonable steps to prevent the alleged contravention.
   
• International Forest Products Ltd. v. British Columbia, (British Columbia Supreme Court, 2006), successfully challenged a series of decisions made by the Ministry of Forests to issue stumpage invoices based on an “estimate scale” of harvested timber being transported by water to the Lower Mainland. The decision granted the return of excess stumpage to International Forest Products Ltd. arising out of the quashing of the Ministry estimate scale decisions and related stumpage invoices.