Good afternoon, everyone.
We're here today to continue our study of the renewal of Canada's forest industry. This is a follow-up study to the one done by the natural resources committee and presented to Parliament in 2008. We're hearing from witnesses in different categories and regions of the country about the industry.
Today we have five sets of witnesses with us.
We have, from Meadow Lake Tribal Council Resource Development LP, Ben Voss, president and CEO. Welcome to you, sir. We have, as an individual, Professor Sudip Kumar Rakshit, a Canada research chair in bioenergy and biorefining processes at Lakehead University. Welcome to you, sir. From the faculty of forestry, University of Toronto, we have Dr. Sain, dean and professor. Welcome to you, sir. We have one more individual here with us, from the department of chemistry at McGill University, Mr. Derek Gray.
By video conference from Vancouver, British Columbia, from Fortress Paper, we have Yvon Pelletier, president of Fortress Specialty Cellulose Inc.—welcome to you, sir—and Marco Veilleux, vice-president, business development and special projects. Welcome to you, sir.
Those are the witnesses today.
We will proceed in our usual fashion by hearing first from the witnesses in the order they are listed on the agenda today, and then we'll go to questions and comments from members.
I would like you all to keep your presentations within the seven minutes. We have five presentations and this does take a lot of time. We want to leave ample time for members.
We'll start with the witness from the Meadow Lake Tribal Council, Mr. Voss, president and CEO. Go ahead, please, with your presentation for up to seven minutes.