BC Timber Sales will require contractors bidding on timber licenses and specified contracts, including silviculture projects, to be registered with the BC SAFE Company program after 1 April 2007.
The program requires registrants to be audited and successfully certified within six months of their registration. However, BCTS has held off on making full SAFE Company certification mandatory in that time frame as it monitors the BC Forest Safety Council’s implementation of their audit program. Nevertheless BCTS said it plans to make it mandatory before the end of 2007 for persons or companies working on new BCTS timber sale licences or specified contracts to be fully SAFE certified in order to work on these operations.
The Ministry of Forests and Range Protection Branch did not require SAFE Company registration in its 2007 standing offer for fire suppression services. But the Branch is planning meetings this spring with the WSCA and BC Forest Safety Council representatives to discuss the requirement for fire suppression contracting.