New Brunswick’s private woodlot owners will see increases in royalty fees for Crown land wood.
The provincial government will raise prices by roughly $10 per cubic metre, resulting in an extra $50 million in revenue.
“That’s going to be followed up with the plan to put forward legislation that allows us to continue making royalty rates based on the fair market value survey that will be reported monthly,” said Mike Holland, New Brunswick’s Minister of Natural Resources and Energy Development.
“What we’ll be doing is increasing our timber royalties over the course of this year and then moving to a system that allows us to have an upward adjustment on timber royalties based on commodity pricing.”
Holland said it is important to ensure the value of Crown land is higher than private, adding that the additional cash would allow for more investments into the private woodlot sector.
“We never want to be at a point where we’re competing with — or worse — undercutting private woodlot owners,” said Holland in a phone interview Thursday.
“When we see situations like commodity pricing being what they have over the last couple of years, we feel like that Crown land timber has value as well.”
The legislation, if passed, will be implemented starting April 1, 2023.
