I've actually been engaged in a cross-country conversation with CEOs in this sector. I've been asking them those questions—that's why I think they're good questions to ask—and trying to assess what they think are the strategic long-term concerns. Now, you mentioned a number of other actors. I haven't necessarily been talking with all of the actors. I've been focusing on the industry.
The first question that everybody's going to ask is, will there be a forest in 100 years? Are we going to have fibre? Are we going to have a basis for our industry? It doesn't matter if you're from the right or from the left, that's the most important question.
Now, that's not necessarily a question that the federal government is primarily responsible for. We're not responsible for the supply of trees. We're not responsible for fibre. That's a provincial responsibility. We do strategic science that supports it. But there's a lot of long-term modelling, and people have a lot of concerns about the future. You're not going to invest in this sector if you don't think there's a future.
On the other hand, if you're living in a small rural community, you want there to be a forest. You see a need to have an industry based on that resource. In that context, I think folks have a number of other concerns. Is the fibre going to be there, and then are we going to be allowed to use it? That's where all parties in society have to come together and talk about what they want to do with the forest. We've been using our forest for over 100 years, and we've done so in a sustainable manner. Through our science, we're constantly improving our forestry practices.
We believe there will be a forest, but it will be a different forest. It would be good to know, to the extent that we can know, what that forest will be.
Then there's a question about what the markets will be, and what products we can produce. I think we increasingly think that transformation and innovation are central parts to that story. I suspect there will always be firms in Canada that are among the most efficient producers of two-by-fours in the world. But that's the basis, that's not the highest point we can reach. We can do so much more with wood. As I talked about in my presentation, there are all kinds of biochemicals. Anything you make from petroleum you can make from a tree. It doesn't mean it's economic—we need to explore those things—but there are new and renewable products that we can make from trees that we're not making today. There are engineered wood products we can make that are stronger and better than a single stick of wood, so we can build taller and better and higher.
I think that's how I would answer that question.
