Documents required under the Crown Forest Sustainability Act (CFSA)

Forest Management Plans

In Ontario, the Ministry of Natural Resources (MNR) ensures that forests in a management unit designated under the CFSA are managed in a sustainable manner consistent with the long-term objectives set out in a forest management plan. A forest management plan is a comprehensive document that contains text, tables and maps. Forest management planning requirements for Crown lands in Ontario are described in the Forest Management Planning Manual (FMPM). The FMPM requires a forest management plan to be consistent with higher-order provincial and regional land use and resource management policies and strategies.

A forest management plan is prepared in an open and consultative fashion by a Registered Professional Forester (RPF) with the assistance of a multi-disciplinary planning team, local citizens committee and input from Aboriginal communities and interested members of the public. It sets out long-term management direction that includes objectives and strategies for the forest in a management unit. A forest management plan also provides details on the locations for harvest, renewal and road construction activities that are planned to occur over a 10-year period.

In Ontario, forest resource disposition occurs after the sustainable supply of wood is determined for a management unit through the forest management planning process. Then, mill demand is assessed, and surplus and/or deficit situations are identified and addressed. The Provincial Wood Supply Strategy identifies critical wood supply issues and provides approaches (strategies) to address those issues. Then, forest industry companies gain access to Ontario’s forest resources (e.g. wood supply) primarily through socio-economic based policy instruments provided for under the Crown Forest Sustainability Act (CFSA) including forest resource supply agreements and licences.

Supply Agreements and Harvesting and Processing Licences

Under the CFSA supply agreements and forest resource licences are legal documents that provide authority for forest products companies or individuals to harvest or use available forest resources from Ontario forest management units. The CFSA defines forest resources as “trees in a forest ecosystem, any other type of plant life prescribed by the regulations that is in a forest ecosystem, and parts of or residue from trees in a forest ecosystem”.

Supply Agreements

MNR enters into a supply agreement or grants a forest resource licence in accordance with either a competitive process described in CFSA Section 24 or another process approved by Order-in-Council 993/95. Order-in-Council 993/95 issued under CFSA Section 24, describes the process whereby the Minister of Natural Resources can make forest resources available without a competitive process, providing that at least one of the conditions outlined in the document are met.

Supply agreements are entered into by the MNR and another party whereby the Minister agrees to supply a forest resource processing facility (e.g. sawmill, pulp and paper mill), with specific target volumes of forest resources from identified management units, for a specified period of time. The Minister can only enter into a supply agreement with the approval of the Lieutenant Governor In Council.

The purpose of a supply agreement is to provide security of forest resource supply to a mill and to outline the terms and conditions under which the forest resources will be made available. An important condition of all supply agreements is the volume of forest resources that will be made available is subject to availability determined through the forest management planning process.

Supply agreements are often entered into with forest products companies who do not hold Sustainable Forest Licences in order for them to access forest resources from the licence area of other companies.

MNR may grant a forest resource licence to permit a person or forest products company to harvest available forest resources (e.g. cut trees) from forest management units in accordance with the CFSA, the Forest Management Planning Manual, the Forest Operations and Silviculture Manual, the Forest Information Manual and the Scaling Manual. There are two types of forest resource licences - Sustainable Forest Licences and Forest Resource Licences.

Sustainable Forest Licences

Sustainable Forest Licences (SFLs) are issued under Section 26 of the CFSA. They are long-term, renewable licences granted by the Minister with the approval of the Lieutenant Governor In Council for a term of up to 20 years. SFLs are reviewed every five years and may be extended for an additional five years, providing that certain conditions are met.

An SFL is generally granted for all of the area in a management unit of Crown forest. While SFLs do not convey any rights to Crown land, they do give a licensee the right to harvest all species of trees found in a licensed area, subject to availability determined through the forest management planning process. The rights granted by an SFL are transferable with the written consent of the Minister, and SFLs may not be sold.

SFL holders bear significant management responsibilities imposed by the Crown. These include forest management planning; gathering forest information for the Crown; conducting operations in accordance with the Crown’s Forest Operations and Silviculture Manual, which includes constructing forest roads that serve the public at large, and regenerating the forest; and compliance planning and monitoring.

Forest Resource Licences

Forest Resource Licences (FRLs) are issued under Section 27 of the CFSA. They are issued for a term of up to five years. They can be extended for one additional year, but only under defined, special circumstances. While SFLs generally govern all of the area in a management unit of Crown forest, FRLs vary significantly in the area they cover. They typically cover only portions of management units and may often overlap with an area covered by an SFL. While an FRL and a SFL may share portions of the same area, each licence holder will typically have the right to harvest different stands. On occasion the area covered by one FRL may also overlap with that of another. Again, different harvest rights are agreed upon by the licensees and Crown to avoid conflict.

While FRLs do not convey any rights to Crown land, they do allow for the harvest of certain amounts and species of timber. Where FRLs overlap, the most recent licensee has preference over earlier licence holders for the species and volumes outlined in the licences.

Forest Resource Processing Facility Licences

Forest resource processing facility licences are required for all forest resource processing facilities (e.g. pulp and paper mills, sawmills) consuming more than 1,000 cubic metres of timber per year must have a facility licence under the legal authority of the CFSA. A forest resource processing facility licence defines how a person can operate or construct a facility, increase the productive capacity of a facility or convert a facility to another type of facility. Before a facility licence can be issued, the Minister must be satisfied the facility has a sufficient supply of forest resources to operate. Licensed facilities are required to provide the provincial government with annual summary statistics on wood consumption and production. This information is used by MNR to monitor wood flow.