VANCOUVER, British Columbia – The British Columbia government amended the export requirements of its Manufactured Forest Products Regulation (MFRP) in an effort to increase the amount of value-added processing of wood products and create jobs in British Columbia mills.

Effective Sept. 30, the maximum dimension of lumber to be considered a sawn-wood product will be 0.1 square metres (approximately 12 inches by 12 inches). As a result of this change to the MFRP, lumber will be subject to further domestic processing prior to being eligible for export. In addition, mills located in the Pacific Coast area will be required to fully manufacture lumber that is made from western red cedar of cypress. Products failing to meet these new value-added manufacturing criteria will require a provincial export permit and payment of a fee to be eligible for export.

The MFPR was introduced in 2003 under the Forest Act. Under the current regulation, logs that are squared off up to a maximum dimension of 0.2 square metres (approximately 17 inches by 17 inches) are categorized as a sawn-wood product and can be exported without further processing.

The changes were planned to take effect July 1 but were postponed due to the coronavirus pandemic.

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