On-Bill Financing Pilots to be Expanded Next Year
Through a regulation, the Province is expanding the on-bill financing pilots to Vancouver Island and Kelowna, beginning in January 2014.

This program helps families finance energy efficiency improvements to their homes through a loan from their utility company, BC Hydro or FortisBC. These pilots apply to single-family and row houses that are owned by the utility account holder. In many cases, families will pay for their energy efficiency retro-fits through their energy savings alone.

Through the On-Bill Financing Pilot projects in Colwood and the Regional District of Okanagan-Similkameen that began in November 2012, homeowners can pay for their energy efficiency improvements over time on their utility bill with no upfront costs.

The regulation also makes it easier to participate in the pilots by changing the eligibility criteria to allow people with one missed bill payment over the past year to enter the program. View the Improvement Financing Regulation, B.C. Reg. 236/2012, and read the government Information Bulletin.

Clark Challenges NDP Leader over Pipelines, Budget
Kinder Morgan, Northern Gateway dominate radio debate
Premier Christy Clark went on the offensive during Friday morning's election radio debate, relentlessly pressing NDP leader Adrian Dix on his decision to oppose an expansion of Kinder Morgan's pipeline between Alberta and Burnaby.

"For Mr. Dix it's a different position every day depending on what the polls and the politics tell him to do," Clark said. "You conceal your position on Kinder Morgan for months, you conceal your platform and what you want to do on the issues that matter to British Columbians for months."

"If you're concealing those things from us, what else are you concealing from us?" Dix responded that he made a clear pronouncement Monday on the Kinder Morgan pipeline. View the full Vancouver Sun article.

BC First Nation Threatens Mine Shutdown over Lack of Jobs
A small band in central British Columbia is threatening to shut down a big copper mine because the rapidly expanding operation does not employ anyone from the Wet'suwet'en First Nation.

"The Wet'suwet'en chief and council were instructed by their members to take whatever action is necessary, including direct action and legal action, to stop further mine expansion," a statement by the band said. View the full article posted in the Globe and Mail.

Forestry Service Providers Protection Act
(Article Posted by Davis LLP)
Following up on [the] bulletin of May 2010, the government brought into force the remaining provisions of the Forestry Service Providers Protection Act ("FSPPA" or "Act") on April 1, 2013. These, together with amendments to the Personal Property Security Act ("PPSA") that came into force March 25, 2013 make the FSPPA functional as of April 1, 2013. Section references herein are to the FSPPA. The Act is of interest to contractors, subcontractors, timber owners and lenders in the forest industry.

The Act does three things for those who provide services to the forest industry in BC:

• it creates lien rights over forest products in favour of contractors in the forest industry;
• it establishes charges in favour of both contractors and subcontractors over accounts receivable of the person they contracted with for unpaid amounts under the contracts or subcontracts;
• it enables the creation of a trust fund to assist contractors ("Forestry Service Providers") who are victims in the insolvency of persons to whom they have provided services.

Any agreement to waive, surrender or modify the rights of a contractor or subcontractor under the Act is void (s. 22). Read the full Davis LLP Forestry Law Bulletin article published by Mary Buttery, Garry Mancell, R.P.F., Angeline S.B. Nyce, R.P.F. and Jeff Waatainen.

Major BC Projects Make Up One in Three Federal Agency Reviews
BC's resource sector is moving at such a fast pace that one in three federal environmental reviews in Canada is taking place in this province.

Lisa Walls, director of the Canadian Environmental Assessment Agency for the BC/Yukon region, said that before passage of the new Canadian Environmental Assessment Act in 2012, Ottawa was involved in 512 environmental reviews in BC.

That number dropped to just 12 with the legislation, which Ottawa said was designed to limit its involvement to major projects and avoid duplication with provincial reviews.

Since then, the number of BC projects has climbed to 28, said Walls, attending the BC Wildlife Federation annual convention in Richmond on Saturday. That represents "about a third of the projects undergoing federal environmental assessment in Canada," she said, confirming "there is so much major resource activity in BC right now." View the full Vancouver Sun article.

Forestry Workers Suddenly Back in Demand as Average Pay Rises 11%
After years of toiling in an industry plagued with layoffs and bankruptcies, the beleaguered forestry worker may finally be catching a break, according to the latest figures from Statistics Canada.

The average weekly paycheque for an employee in the forestry, logging and support industry rose by 11% to $1,054.68 in February 2013, compared to a year earlier, according to data released on Thursday. The increase was far and away the biggest of any sector in the Canadian economy and the latest sign of the "supercycle" that the Canadian forestry industry is enjoying. A big part of this is thanks to a strong rebound in the U.S. housing market, analysts and industry leaders say. View full article in Financial Post.