Okay.
Well, the Northwest Territories started by converting a prison block to heating with pellets five years ago, and they now have the highest concentration of pellet use in Canada, with a population of 40,000 consuming around 20,000 tonnes of pellets a year, replacing oil and creating a local market. The pellets are coming mostly out of Alberta, which has a hard time finding markets right now.
There are also industrial applications, for carbon reduction that can benefit mining, oil extraction....
There's one that probably doesn't catch the eye, but rather than using oil to extract oil, heat it, and refine it, if they were to use biomass it would clean up their act a bit and they might not be targeted so much for being “dirty oil”, for instance, out west.
There's coal replacement also. We've had the example in Ontario to show that it can be done successfully, and there are significant volumes of coal that could be replaced there. Any policies that would encourage that would help sustain our industry.
The general outlook is positive for our industry. Europe will continue to dominate, with heat and power.
In terms of certification of forestry, we're getting lots of help from the Canadian representatives abroad passing along the message that Canada is a certifiable and reliable partner for forestry. It's essential to develop those markets. There's a significant potential in the domestic market that can be developed and that will help the whole industry. NRCan helps us promote and document this and participates in diffusing this information. We're thankful for that.
Thank you.