Thank you, Mr. Chairman.
Good afternoon, everyone. It's a privilege to appear before this committee as a witness to provide remarks and answer any questions you might have related to forestry.
My name is Ying Hei Chui. I'm a professor of wood technology and engineering at the University of New Brunswick. I'm part of the faculty of forestry and environmental management. I'm currently director of the Wood Science and Technology Centre at UNB. In 2009, I was chosen by the Natural Sciences and Engineering Research Council of Canada to lead a national research network on innovative wood products and building systems, now known as NEWBuildS.
I have over 30 years of experience in conducting and managing research on wood products and wood building construction, and 27 of these 30-plus years have actually been in Canada. Therefore, my opening remarks here will be on how innovation helps transform the wood products industry and create market opportunities for the industry. I will start with the Atlantic Canadian situation and then move on to the national situation
The Wood Science and Technology Centre at UNB is the only wood products research facility in Atlantic Canada, and it performs a critical innovation support role to the wood industry in the region. The centre assists, on average, about 30 to 40 companies per year with their innovation needs. Most of these companies are from Atlantic Canada, and some are from other provinces or the U.S.
The types of technical services we provide include development of new products, solving process problems, and seeking product approval for companies in Canada and overseas markets. Our ability to continue to support the wood products industry in Atlantic Canada is under threat to some extent. Because of the retirement of faculty members, we have lost our critical mass.
We were delighted to see that the Standing Senate Committee on Agriculture and Forestry, in a 2011 report, recommended that:
...the Canada Research Chairs, the Natural Sciences and Engineering Research Council of Canada and Natural Resources Canada, work with Canadian universities and the forest industry to establish four...research chairs in the design and construction of wood buildings, to be located in the Maritimes, Quebec, Ontario and Western Canada.
Today, we've seen research chairs established in three of these four regions, but not yet in the Maritimes. I believe a research chair in wood building, design, and construction in the Maritimes is critical to help the Atlantic Canadian wood product industry capture the opportunities created by the recent changes in building codes to allow mid-rise wood construction.
At the national level, the NEWBuildS research network, led by me, consists of 23 professors from 13 Canadian universities. The NEWBuildS network was established with funding support from the forest sector R and D initiative announced by the federal government in 2008.
The goal of the network is to develop technical information that supports the use of wood products beyond single-family and low-rise residential building construction, which has traditionally been the major end-use market for Canadian wood products. This is largely because of the restrictions imposed by building codes requiring buildings to be lower than five storeys.
It has long been recognized by the industry that overdependence on the narrow scope low-rise residential construction market has made the industry vulnerable to external factors outside of its control, such as housing styles, commodity pricing, and exchange rates. Diversification into other applications such as mid-rise building construction has been a major goal of the Canadian wood products industry for a number of years. Through research conducted by organizations such as FPInnovations, the National Research Council, and universities, the wood products industry has managed to convince the building code authorities in Canada to increase the height limit for wood buildings from four to six storeys.
The Government of Canada should be commended for providing the research funding to allow this research to be conducted in order to make this building code change possible. More importantly, the funding provided by the federal government actually helped bring the Canadian universities, FPInnovations, and the National Research Council together to form a large Canadian innovation network that is now the envy of the world.
In the field of innovative wood products and building systems prior to 2008 and 2009, Canada was essentially a follower and adopter of technologies and knowledge developed elsewhere. Now we are considered a world leader in this particular discipline. Although we have made significant inroads from low-rise to mid-rise building construction, I believe the potential is there for wood to be used in taller buildings and this view is shared by a lot of experts as well. At the global level, we have now seen the completion of a 14-storey wood building in Norway. Currently there are at least three tall wood building projects that are currently at the design stage in Canada. The significance of this breakthrough project is that we can demonstrate to end users that, along with concrete and steel, wood is a viable structural material for tall buildings and massive structures.
I believe the foundation has been laid for Canada to be a leader in developing competitive solutions for tall wood buildings that can be used both domestically and in export markets. The potential economic benefit for Canada can be enormous. However, there are still major technical challenges ahead of us and we will need to continue to innovate and keep the innovation network functioning in order to sustain the momentum to move ahead of our competitors. This will require governments, universities, industries and research organizations working together to achieve this goal and we have demonstrated through the mid-rise wood building initiative that by working together we can achieve great results collectively, such as making the changes in building codes possible.
So, Mr. Chairman, I look forward to discussing opportunities and approaches with the committee today on how we can sustain Canada's position as a world leader in innovative wood products and buildings solutions.
Thank you very much.