“I Am All For The Little Guy Being Able To Make A Living”

Olivia Bates
August 10, 2022

Private woodlot owner, lumber miller responds to Crown stumpage rate increase

A private woodlot owner and lumber miller says the new Crown land stumpage rates announced last month will help smaller-scale operators like him make a better living from the woods.

“The higher timber prices at the mills is far overdue and, if anything, should be increased more,” Sussex-based private contractor Adam Spinney recently told the Conservation Council.

Last month, Minister MIke Holland announceed that Crown stumpage rates would increase for the first time in about seven years.

Spinney said that even though he has a woodlot, he’ll occasionally purchase logs to keep his sawmill business going when demand is higher than he can harvest on his own—so the 30 per cent increase will likely drive costs up for that side of his business.

“I’m okay with that,” he said.

“I am all for the little guy being able to make a living with some hard work but over the past decade that’s has proven to be impossible. Unless you have a million dollars to invest in harvesters and transporters it’s awful hard to make a go with a chainsaw and tractor.”

Spinney’s comments echo those made by independent foresters the Conservation Council interviewed for our 2017 NB Forest Report Card.

Rick Doucett, president of the New Brunswick Federation of Woodlot Owners (NBFWO), told Global New Brunswick that the temporary stumpage rate increase, along with a new system to adjust rates on a monthly basis, should produce a more competitive market for private sellers.

“It’s a great first step to create that pathway and the next step we need to take is how can we create enough value for the wood that the growers, the cutters and the truckers can make some money, but also the industry can make money,” Doucett told reporters when the changes were announced last month.

“It’s about finding that sweet spot where everybody is making a little bit of money.”

The NBFWO and others have been calling on government to increase Crown royalties, especially as prices skyrocketed and large mills made record profits over the past two years.

It was only early last month that Minister Mike Holland announced the temporary 30 per cent hike from $27 to $37 per square metre harvested on Crown land.

Holland said new legislation “that creates fair market value and an upward adjustment based on commodity rates going forward” will be introduced this fall and come into effect next April.

New Brunswick’s independent foresters have been in the shadow of large forestry companies for decades. As Spinney said, we’re hopeful that the coming changes will mean our independent foresters can finally make a good living from the woods again.