British Columbia’s Forest Appeals Commission has reduced an administrative penalty against Cassiar Forest Corp. from $1,528,410.87 to $100,000 under a settlement that ends the company’s forestry-reporting appeal. The February 4, 2026 order in Cassiar Forest Corp. v. Government of British Columbia, 2026 BCFAC 2 also provides that no costs are payable.
The result resolves the amount of the penalty by agreement. The two-page order does not explain the parties’ reasons for compromising or decide whether Cassiar’s challenges to the original penalty would have succeeded at a hearing.
Reporting changes to Crown timber harvests
The dispute arose from forestry operations conducted under a non-renewable forest licence. A December 17, 2021 determination, corrected on January 7, 2022, found ten contraventions for failing to provide required appraisal information and one for incomplete or inaccurate waste-and-residue information.
The commission’s earlier document-production decision, 2024 BCFAC 5, corrected July 4, 2024, records the original penalty and explains the reporting system. Stumpage charges for Crown timber depend on the volume harvested and a rate reflecting factors such as timber value and harvesting and transportation costs.
Initial rates use estimates and projections. Licence holders must report significant changes, including development costs that were not incurred and differences in the area harvested. Updated appraisals can change the stumpage rate. Timber left unharvested may also attract waste assessments.
The government’s position was that Cassiar incurred lower development costs than projected and left some lower-value timber unharvested without providing required updates. It said those changes meant the stumpage rate had been lower than it should have been.
Company disputed intent, benefit and penalty
Cassiar challenged the original decision on several grounds. It disputed that the contraventions were deliberate or intended to produce an economic gain, contested the calculation of any benefit, and argued that the penalty was excessive. It also raised procedural-fairness, due-diligence and time-limit arguments.
The earlier reasons distinguish the administrative penalty from money recovered through other processes. They record $194,111.69 collected through stumpage reappraisal and a further $61,554.09 recovered through waste assessments. Those recovered amounts were not themselves included in the administrative penalty.
The original penalty instead included an additional estimate of lost stumpage revenue and deterrent components. The settlement order varies the total administrative penalty; it does not order a refund of the separately recovered stumpage or waste assessments.
Before settlement, both sides sought document-production orders. In the corrected 2024 preliminary decision, the commission partly granted the government’s request, ordering production of records of alleged additional actual costs and contractor invoices. It rejected Cassiar’s request for all records relating to inspections under the licence as too broad.
That ruling did not determine the appropriate final penalty. The commission also expressed concern that relevant government documents might remain undiscovered, while holding that production requests still had to be tied to the issues properly raised in the appeal.
Agreed resolution, not a new penalty formula
In approving the 2026 settlement under section 17(2) of the Administrative Tribunals Act, the commission said the agreed terms were consistent with the governing enactments. It varied the penalty under section 84(1) of the Forest and Range Practices Act. Cassiar agreed that the settlement represented a final resolution of the appeal.
The order leaves a $100,000 administrative penalty for the contraventions. It is not a ruling that reporting duties were inapplicable, that Cassiar was exonerated, or that comparable forestry penalties must be reduced by the same amount. Its practical effect is to conclude this appeal on negotiated terms, without a merits ruling on the disputed penalty arguments.
