A-18.1 - Sustainable Forest Development Act

Section 103.7 Disposition versions

2013-04-09

103.7. However, a harvest agreement to which two or more guarantee holders are party may not be entered into unless it is demonstrated that an integration agreement has been signed by all the guarantee holders concerned and, if applicable, by the holders of a permit to harvest timber to supply a wood processing plant that are authorized to harvest timber in the forest operations zones concerned.

The integration agreement sets out the mechanisms ensuring harvest integration and timber transportation and the manner in which decisions are to be made and disputes settled on harvest integration and timber transportation and on the allocation of their costs.

If it cannot be demonstrated that an integration agreement has been signed by all the guarantee and permit holders concerned within the time determined by the Minister, the Minister may, with regard to the forest operations zones involved, make any of the following decisions:

(1)  in accordance with section 103.8, submit or allow to be submitted for arbitration any dispute that prevents the integration agreement from being entered into and that involves an object of the integration agreement, and, despite the first paragraph of this section, enter into a harvest agreement with all the guarantee holders concerned if the Minister believes that the dispute is not such as to significantly compromise harvest integration;

(2)  carry out the harvest or have it carried out by forest development enterprises, in accordance with the first paragraph of section 62, or allow the harvest to be carried out by such enterprises within the framework of a management delegation agreement entered into under section 17.22 of the Act respecting the Ministère des Ressources naturelles et de la Faune (chapter M-25.2); or

(3)  leave the timber standing or allow the timber to be marketed by the timber marketing board and, in those cases, subtract from the contract for the sale of standing timber of the guarantee holders concerned the volumes they were required to harvest in the forest operations zones involved.

The reduction of the volumes of timber referred to in subparagraph 3 of the third paragraph does not give the guarantee holder the right to an indemnity. These volumes are deemed to be volumes to which the guarantee holder waived all rights and may not be reclaimed by the holder in subsequent years.

2013, c. 2, s. 29.