Thank you for the…

Thank you for the opportunity to comment on the proposed amendments to Ontario Regulation 224/97 and the Aggregates of Ontario Provincial Standards under the Aggregates Resources Act.

Greenmantle Forest Inc. (GFI) holds the Sustainable Forest Licence (SFL) for the Lakehead Forest and is responsible for forest management planning on the Forest. Aggregate resource development associated with the Aggregate Resources Act occurs on the Lakehead Forest annually and often negatively affects GFI and its timber resource with losses of investment, timber assets, and revenue. Greenmantle Forest Inc. recognizes that commercial aggregate extraction is necessary to support infrastructure development and maintenance in Ontario’s growing economy. The negative impact GFI experiences can be remedied with the application of appropriate rehabilitation and compensation.

Greenmantle Forest Inc. has reviewed the proposed amendments to Ontario Regulation 224/97 and the Aggregates of Ontario Provincial Standards (Provincial Standards) under the Aggregates Resources Act and has the following comments. All comments are specific to aggregate resources development occurring on Crown lands licenced for forest management.

1. Forestry Aggregate Pits
Greenmantle Forest Inc. supports the proposed regulatory change to the Provincial Standards which removes the 10-year time limit for Forestry Aggregate Pits as described in the Proposals to amend O.Reg. 224/97 and the Aggregates of Ontario Provincial Standards under the Aggregates Resources Act, Section 1.1.8. By facilitating the continued operation of a Forestry Aggregate Pit, the requirement to apply for a Category 9 aggregate pit permit is removed. This avoids duplicating approved Forest Management Plan information to fulfil permit application requirements, and in some cases may prevent opening of additional aggregate pits.

2. Site Rehabilitation
The proposed changes to the Site Plan requirements for final rehabilitation (Section 1.2.2 Site Plan Standards – Modernization) fail to specify the use of appropriate silviculture prescriptions, which ensure an ecosite based future forested condition. Currently, site plans for permits are required to show ‘the location, design and type of vegetation (e.g. grasses, legumes, shrubs and trees, etc.) that will be established on the site during final rehabilitation’ which lacks the required rigour and prescriptive detail to ensure a forested condition on the SFL area.

The amendments to the site plan requirements must include a requirement for silviculture prescriptions consistent with the approved forest management plan and the objectives within. These prescriptions are prepared by a Registered Professional Forester and consider the application of regulated manuals, forest science, and accepted silviculture practices (i.e. tree species, and density) in Ontario.

Prior to aggregate pit development these sites were managed Crown forest lands, as such, silviculture prescriptions include appropriate tree planting densities to return the site to a required forested condition. It is important to note that aggregate pit rehabilitation sites are essentially a greenfield with no barriers to seedling spacing (e.g. stumps, logs, wet holes), and there are limited natural ingress opportunities. In the absence of logging debris, the target density for Jack Pine and Red Pine should be 2,400 stems per hectare which is consistent the 100% stocking metric for plantations (artificial regeneration). Low density plantings of pine species in an open site, in the absence of advanced regeneration or natural ingress will result in poor quality stems and an understocked future forest condition.

Alternatives to grasses and legumes, and shrubs must be reconsidered, as this ground cover type competes with tree seedings for site occupancy and dominance. A herbicide treatment is often required to control competing grass, shrub and deciduous vegetation. It is agreed some type of ground cover is needed to avoid erosion and retain moisture for tree growth.

In addition, Crown dues (stumpage) are paid to the Province of Ontario on timber volume harvested and failure to rehabilitate the site to a future forest condition prescribed in the FMP is lost revenue for Ontario.

3. Compensation for silviculture investment
The proposed amendments to the Provincial Standards and Ontario Regulation 224/97 do not address compensation for silviculture investment losses. The establishment of aggregate pits/quarries on Crown land licenced for forest management purposes, at times occurs on areas where forest regeneration treatments such as site preparation and tree planting have been applied. The removal of the growing stock while it is in the sapling or immature development stages, results in a loss of the present and future value of the forest asset, and the loss of financial investment undertaken to prepare, plant/seed and maintain the plantation.

Silviculture activity on managed Crown land in Ontario is funded by a Forest Renewal Trust Fund (FRTF) specific to each forest management unit. The FRTF is funded by mandatory Crown dues applied to the timber volume harvested from Crown land on the management unit. Amendments to the Provincial Standards and Ontario Regulation 224/97 need to include 100% compensation to the FRTF for loss of silviculture investment due to destruction of the regenerating forest.

4. Revenue loss
The Sustainable Forest Licence held by GFI provides the company with rights to timber on the Lakehead Forest, making the licence GFI’s largest tangible asset. The harvest of merchantable timber is a direct source of revenue for GFI through the collection of management fees, and payment of forest renewal charges to the FRTF, each based on merchantable harvest volume. Merchantable harvest volume is also used to calculate GFIs contribution to Ontario’s Forestry Future’s Trust Fund.

The proposed amendments to O. Reg. 224/97 and the Provincial Standards must be expanded to include a remedy for SFL holder revenue loss resulting from aggregate resource permittee activity on managed Crown lands. This includes requiring the aggregate resource permittee to contact the SFL holder to provide first opportunity to harvest timber on the aggregate permit area, and a requirement for payment of management fees on merchantable timber to the SFL holder by the aggregate resource permit for holder.

5. Timber disposal
The proposed changes to the management and operation of new and existing aggregate resource sites include how trees and stumps will be disposed of (Section 3.1). The proposed new operating requirement specifies that trees and stumps need to be properly disposed of and cites as an example ‘not buried on the site’. This description appears to offer an option for burying stumps and trees ‘off-site’, and removes utilization from the current standards, as alternate means of disposal. Utilization (e.g. timber harvest and marketing) must be restored and encouraged as an option. As described in Comment #4, merchantable trees are a significant asset for SFL holders, as such, permittees must provide to the SFL holder, first right of refusal to harvest timber on the aggregate resources permit area, and pay the associated management fee to the SFL holder for timber removed.