Monitoring Licensees’ Compliance with Legislation

Planning and practice requirements of the Forest and Range Practices Act (FRPA) and the Wildfire Act (WA) are the minimum legal requirement on public land in British Columbia. The government inspects licensees’ forest and range activities for compliance with these requirements and may take enforcement action for non-compliance. This helps to hold licensees accountable and is an indication that the legislation is working.

In 2010, the Ministry of Forests, Lands, and Natural Resource Operations (MFLNRO)—the government ministry responsible for monitoring forest and range activities on public land—began inspecting activities other than forest and range as part of its new legislative responsibilities. In this report, the Board looked at the extent to which the government still inspects forest and range activities. It found the number of inspections of forest and range activities for the year ending March 31, 2012 were a third of the number carried out three years earlier.