Teal Cedar Products has lost a bid for damages against the B.C. government over its declaration of First Nations rights on Haida Gwaii. Read More
A B.C. Supreme Court ruling says the province acted in good faith and any business losses were a byproduct of legal regulatory processes
A B.C. Supreme Court ruling says the province acted in good faith and any business losses were a byproduct of legal regulatory processes
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Teal Cedar Products has lost a bid for damages against the B.C. government over its declaration of First Nations rights on Haida Gwaii.
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The B.C.-based forestry company argued the recognition of title over the lumber-rich but highly protected island archipelago deprived it of its ability to harvest despite Teal holding tree farm and forest licences in the area.
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It argued the B.C. government didn’t act in good faith, essentially expropriated property where Teal had business interests, and failed in a promise to keep the company whole during its negotiations with the Haida Gwaii Management Council over Indigenous title to the former Queen Charlotte Islands off B.C.’s west coast.
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B.C. Supreme Court Judge Brenda Brown rejected all three rationales and dismissed the claim for damages against either of the defendants, the B.C. government or the management council.
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Teal held long-term licences on Haida Gwaii for annual allowable cuts, but those are open to “periodic redetermination” under the Forest Act of B.C., the judge noted in the ruling posted online Tuesday. Since 2010, annual allowable cuts have at times been determined by the Haida Gwaii Management Council.
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Teal managed the forestry tenures on Haida Gwaii starting in 1997, when it entered an agreement with TimberWest Forest Corp. Teal obtained the two tenures from TimberWest in 2008, before selling them to A&A Trading Ltd. in late 2016.
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A few years into its management of the tenures, Teal and other forestry licensees were involved in a land use planning discussion with business, First Nations and government stakeholders, but there was no consensus and that process became a negotiation between the province and the Haida Nation.
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In 2005, the two parties signed a letter of understanding about land use planning on Haida Gwaii. It included provisions for protecting both forests and cultural values on the land. That led to reductions in harvest levels beginning in 2012.
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“Teal became concerned with respect to the available timber for harvest and commissioned two reports, one in 2011 and a followup one in 2014, for planning purposes and to update management,” read the ruling. The latter report said Teal was reaching a “pinch point” where it would be unable to access enough volume to meet its annual allowable cut.
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A consultant said it was running out of accessible cut blocks and would soon be able to harvest nothing at all because of clauses protecting island watersheds. Teal management decided it had to sell the tenures to a company that exports logs — something Teal didn’t do and couldn’t start doing for operational reasons — and sold to A&A Trading for $5,400,037.