Timeliness, Penalty Size and Transparency of Penalty Determinations

One way the Forest and Range Practices Act (FRPA) and Wildfire Act (WA) are enforced is through the use of administrative penalties. Administrative penalties provide an efficient way to enforce legislation and promote compliance, if appropriately used. This investigation examined whether administrative penalties:

• are timely;
• remove any financial gain and reflect the statutory considerations such as the gravity and magnitude of the contravention; and
• are made known, so as to promote compliance in the regulated community.

This report looks at penalty determinations made by government officials for contraventions of FRPA, WA and the Forest Practices Code of British Columbia Act, during a five-year period from April 1, 2009, to March 31, 2014.

The report makes several recommendations, including that government should establish a publicly-accessible, online database of all penalty determinations under FRPA and WA.