Northern development offers forestry affected business consulting rebate

Up to $15,000 is available to eligible business affected by mill closures and curtailments

According to Northern Development’s 2018 State of the North Economic Report, Northern B.C. is home to 55 per cent of the province’s sawmills, 39 per cent of its pulp and paper mills, 79 per cent of its pellet mills and 45 per cent of its veneer, plywood, and panel mills. There are more than a dozen municipalities in Northern B.C. where the economy is either totally or somewhat dependent on forestry, and others still where forestry-related activity is a common sight.

The forestry industry is critical to Northern B.C. communities, however announcements of curtailments or closures and the remnants of historic wildfires in both 2017 and 2018 have presented challenges for people and businesses operating in the region.

In order to offset those challenges, the Northern Development Initiave Fund is now offering a consulting rebate to small- and medium-sized businesses in its service region that may be affected by permanent mill closures or curtailments.

The Forestry Affected Business (FAB) Consulting Rebate will reimburse those businesses for contracted consulting services. A rebate of up to 75 per cent, to a maximum of $15,000, can be recovered for the cost of hiring a consultant to assist with business efforts.

This newly introduced program is an offshoot of the Competitiveness Consulting Rebate program, which offers rebates to businesses in the industrial supply and services sector.

FAB however, targets industries outside of that sector such as retail, tourism operators, hospitality, accommodations, and agriculture/ ranching.

This program is designed to help businesses recover the costs of thirdparty consulting projects. These types of projects must focus on ways to sustain businesses during the economic downturn in the forestry industry. Eligible projects may include business planning and management, market development, quality and safety management, cash flow and financial management, and business coaching.

In order to be eligible, potential businesses must be privately owned with less than 500 employees and annual revenues of less than $100 million. Start ups and publicly traded businesses are not eligible.

Northern Development has received applications from interested businesses in Mackenzie, Prince George, 100 Mile House, and 108 Mile House.

Other business development programs offered through Northern Development include the Northern Industries Innovation Fund, the Competitiveness Consulting Rebate, and the Supply Chain Connector.

For more information, visit www.northerndevelopment.bc.ca.