"This comprehensive overhaul of Ontario's wood allocation system would help build a strong forest industry in today's global economy. It would help create investment opportunities and opportunities for jobs and economic prosperity." Michael Gravelle, Minister of Northern Development, Mines and Forestry

Ontario intends to introduce legislation later this year that would modernize its forest tenure and pricing system. This would help re-energize Ontario’s forest sector by creating new jobs and attracting investment while ensuring Ontario’s forests continue to be managed sustainably.

This new proposed system, if passed, would establish two governance models for managing and harvesting wood from Ontario’s forests:

• Local Forest Management Corporations (LFMCs) would be government agencies that manage Crown forests and oversee the competitive sale of the timber in a given area
• Enhanced Shareholder Sustainable Forest Licences would consist of a group of mills and/or harvesters that collectively form a new company to manage Crown forests under the Sustainable Forest Licence that is issued to them.

This would help make Ontario’s timber supply and prices more responsive to market demand, create new business opportunities for entrepreneurs and facilitate greater local and Aboriginal participation in the sector.

Transforming and revitalizing the forestry sector is part of the Open Ontario plan to create jobs and economic opportunities in Northern Ontario.