After posting a loss in 2019, the Sunshine Coast Community Forest and its operating company Sechelt Community Projects Inc. (SCPI) will not be issuing an extraordinary dividend this year.
The extraordinary dividends, when issued, go into the Community Forest Legacy Fund. SCPI will still be paying a regular dividend to its sole shareholder, the District of Sechelt, of $25,890.
The financial results for 2019 were presented at the Community Forest’s annual general meeting, held this year by videoconference with a recording to be made available to the public in the coming weeks. The SCPI annual report was also published in the May 1 edition of Coast Reporter.
The results show a loss of $391,700 for 2019, compared to a net income of $1.2 million in 2018.
Chair Geoff Craig said although no dividend will be issued for the Legacy Fund, money for grants is still available. Applications for this year’s funding were set to close on May 15.
The drop in revenue and resulting loss were largely due to the Community Forest not undertaking any logging in 2019.
Community Forest operations manager Dave Lasser said there was no harvesting mainly because SCPI was awaiting government decisions that had to work their way through new protocols that included consultation with the shíshálh Nation, which now has a greater say in forestry decisions in its territory through the Foundation Agreement with the province.
A key decision was approval of a new Forest Stewardship Plan (FSP), which didn’t come until April, which means it’s very unlikely that any harvesting can take place until the fall.
At a March open house, the Community Forest outlined plans to harvest timber in its Angus Creek zone east of Porpoise Bay, in Halfmoon Bay and in East Wilson Creek.
At the time the Community Forest had hoped to have cutting permits in place for the blocks known as AN11 and AN12 in the Angus Creek zone in time to get the harvesting done this spring.
Lasser said it’s now too close to fire season for harvesting – which would require putting out tenders, building roads and other preparatory work – to begin before the fall.
Lasser also told Coast Reporter that if the COVID-19 pandemic is still leading to precautionary measures in the fall, it could mean some changes in how the Community Forest approaches harvesting.
“When we do start up in the fall, which I fully expect we will, there are still things that we will likely have to do,” he said. “I expect until there’s a vaccine we’re going to have to have plans and procedures in place.”
