B.C. premier breaks eight-year tax logjam for logging contractors

VICTORIA – Premier Christy Clark has told a truck loggers’ convention in Victoria that she’s broken a tax logjam that has dogged some B.C. forest contractors for eight years.

Clark says B.C. and the federal government have resolved a long-standing tax issue that will now see up to 190 forest contractors get back $9 million in federal taxes.

The issue dates back to 2003 when B.C. restructured the forest industry and offered compensation to companies in exchange for reductions in their timber-cutting rights.

The B.C. government did not tax the compensation amounts but Ottawa did, and the contractors have been lobbying for reimbursement ever since.

Clark also told the annual Truck Loggers Association convention that she is putting $5 million into a forest contractors protection fund that offers compensation to companies who end up dealing with other companies that go broke.

Truck Loggers Association president Dwight Yochim says contractors have been waiting and lobbying since 2003 to resolve the tax matter.