A local forest company’s appeal of its license suspension and $55,000 in fines won’t be dismissed — for now.
Meadow Creek Cedar provided more information about the particulars of its case to the Forest Appeals Commission by Tuesday’s deadline.
Failure to do so would have resulted in the appeal being tossed out. But it’s unknown whether the information meets what was required of them.
“The chair will be discussing that with the registrar,” commission executive director Colleen Smith said Wednesday. “I don’t know whether the lawyer for the government is going to say that it does or doesn’t.”
An oral hearing was originally scheduled this week in Nelson but was cancelled when the company didn’t provide documents to flesh out its arguments and a list of witnesses.
The government successfully argued it was missing information critical to preparing for the hearing, so the commission ordered the company to clearly set out its objections to each of the district manager’s decisions.
If the material provided this week is considered sufficient, the hearing will be rescheduled.
Meadow Creek Cedar’s license was suspended in February for silviculture infractions. It was also fined $42,000. Subsequently, it was fined a further $13,500 for a timber trespass and soil disturbance.
A third non-compliance file is expected to go before the district manager for a hearing next month.