How the
numbers work
What Ontario’s Crown timber charges mean, the terms used, and the licence. Understanding the difference between an administrative charge and a market price avoids drawing the wrong conclusion.
Administrative charge, not a market price
Every figure on this site is a regulated Crown timber charge — the administrative stumpage a licensee pays the Crown for the right to harvest public timber under the Crown Forest Sustainability Act. It is not a free-market price for logs, sawn lumber or finished wood, and should not be read as one. Charges are set province-wide by species group and product and do not vary by forest management unit or city.
Glossary
Stumpage — the charge for standing Crown timber, made of the minimum price plus the residual value price.
Minimum price — set annually on 1 April by species group and product; adjusted for inflation; guarantees stable Crown revenue regardless of the market ($3.56/m³ for charged conifer and Grade 1 hardwood groups in 2026–27).
Residual value price — adjusted monthly; rises when forest-product prices are strong and falls when they are weak, so the Crown shares in market upside.
Forest renewal / FRI charge — funds regeneration and the Forest Resources Inventory; $2.50/m³ for the main charged groups, less for composite, pulp and poplar.
Forestry Futures charge — a flat $0.69/m³ that funds silviculture where a licensee cannot and other approved work.
Ontario Wood Measurement System — the system that meters harvested volume as wood enters the mill; the charge is paid on that measured volume.
Scope — Ontario only
This site covers Ontario only. British Columbia is excluded because its timber-pricing data is licence-restricted. Ontario’s data is open.
Licence
Contains information licensed under the Open Government Licence – Ontario. See the Open Government Licence – Ontario, the Crown timber charges dataset, the Crown stumpage explainer and forest management facts and figures.