Tax issue affecting forest contractors resolved
Posted January 18, 2013 6:22 pm.
This article is more than 5 years old.
VICTORIA (NEWS1130) – Premier Christy Clark has told a truck loggers’ convention in Victoria that she’s broken a tax logjam that has dogged some BC forest contractors for eight years.
Clark says BC 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 BC restructured the forest industry and offered compensation to companies in exchange for reductions in their timber-cutting rights.
The BC 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.
