Skip to content
Join our Newsletter

Bioenergy initiatives unveiled

B.C. Forests Minister Pat Bell rolled out two new policy initiatives Wednesday to help the bioenergy industry get more secure access to waste fibre needed to fuel growth of their fledgling sector.

B.C. Forests Minister Pat Bell rolled out two new policy initiatives Wednesday to help the bioenergy industry get more secure access to waste fibre needed to fuel growth of their fledgling sector.

The first is the creation of new type of timber or timber-waste right, called a receiving licence. It will give bioenergy companies a right to a certain amount of low-value timber or wood waste that companies that have regular timber rights would not normally bring out of the woods.

The idea is that the receiving licence volume can be added to the volume on a regular licence, which means the company doing the logging can bring out both high-grade and low grade timber.

The details have not been worked out -- including whether the receiving licences would be up for open bid -- but Bell said he definitely wants to role out the initiative this year.

He said he does not believe the changes will require legislation, but he would not hesitate to enact legislation if its required.

Bell said he's already seen support for the new form of licence in discussions with forest companies and bioenergy firms.

"I think it will really help stimulate the bioenergy industry," said Bell, who is hosting the two-day Natural Resources Forum, which continues today at the Civic Centre.

The second initiative is to move the stand-as-a-whole pricing system -- which as been piloted in the B.C. Timbers Sales open bid program -- to timber already held by companies in longer-term harvesting rights.

The idea behind stand-as-a-whole pricing is to price timber, or ask for bids, based on a harvest area as opposed to the individual tree. The belief is the pricing system will encourage more timber to be logged, including lower-grade timber that might be normally be left behind. This is also meant to increase the availability of fibre available to bioenergy firms.

About 200 of the new stand-as-a-whole bids have been put out, with some mixed results, acknowledged, Bell. But he noted that bioenergy firms are also starting to bid on the area-based timber-priced rights.

Bell expects the new pricing system to be phased in, most likely starting in the Interior where there are more homogenous stands of beetle-killed pine.

The new pricing system will have to pass muster under the Softwood Lumber Agreement with the Americans.

Helping underpin a bioenergy sector has been a major policy plank of the B.C. Liberals.

Although pulp mills have been creating energy from wood waste for decades, there is only one stand-alone bioenergy plant in British Columbia. The Williams Lake plant has been operating for 16 years.

There are, however, a number of proposals for bioenergy plants in northern B.C. including in Prince George and Mackenzie.