Natural Resources committee  I will certainly defer to my friends in FPInnovations on the technical aspects of what's in cross laminated timber, but the firefighters are quite intimately involved in the building code process. They're able to make submissions and presentations throughout the process. It's a very public and open process.

Natural Resources committee  Again, that is an excellent question. We just talked about the forest products industry's environmental credentials and our third party certification through the international certification standards such as FSC, SFI, and so on. There is a component of that in which they look to see your engagement with aboriginal people.

Natural Resources committee  Mr. Rafferty and I have some history. I was the deputy minister in Ontario when they started the tenure reform process. I think there is a willingness and an understanding that making fibre available for new and innovative uses has to be part of our conversation. However, it is the classic Canadian challenge that the tenure system is the responsibility of the provinces and they need to make their decisions on what's in the best interests of the people on the landscape, the people who are creating the jobs, and the communities that they want to serve.

Natural Resources committee  I'll start, and maybe Pierre can jump in and help a little bit. I've met with the building and land developers and the home builders' associations of Ontario. They are actually quite supportive and quite positive on the greater use of wood construction. They helped to lobby the provincial government in Ontario to change their building code to six storeys.

Natural Resources committee  We've actually had some good successes. The traditional hutong and the traditional home and building construction in China have tended to be in cement and concrete. However, with B.C.'s FII, the British Columbia forest innovation institute, and the federal government working with our embassy and our trade offices, we've literally opened schools and trained architects in China in how to use more wood construction in institutional establishments, multi-dwelling homes, and schools, encouraging them to use more wood construction in the roofing in the concrete buildings.

Natural Resources committee  Again, thank you very much for the question, Ms. Duncan. I'll break my comments into two pieces actually, if I can. Forest disturbance is an interesting term. We need to be very careful as we think about the disturbance in Canada's forests. There is an organization in the United States that went on Google Maps or looked at the disturbance using satellite imaging, and they concluded that there was a lot of disturbance in Canada's forests.

Natural Resources committee  There is very much so. We have a number of colleagues in the forest industry family who have a particular focus on that opportunity. The Canadian Wood Council, CWC, and their Wood Works! program is something on which, I understand, they will make a presentation before this committee in the coming weeks, so I won't go into detail on what they do, but I would encourage you to talk to them about how they run education programs for architects and for the public.

Natural Resources committee  It's an excellent question, Mr. Leef. I'm actually going to signal to my colleague, Aran O'Carroll, because some of the issues you raise are part of the Canadian Boreal Forest Agreement. I will throw it to him in a minute. Only in Canada do we have a federal-provincial conversation every time we talk policy.

Natural Resources committee  I was in the partisan business many years ago, so I won't continue your line of partisan comment. I would point out that we had two economic forces happening: one structural, the decline of written materials and newsprint; and one cyclical, U.S. housing starts. Those were global, international, forces acting on Canada's forest products industry.

Natural Resources committee  I think it's a function of a number of things. There are some groups, which Aran alluded to that have left the CBFA, that have an agenda they want to pursue. There are others who make products that are in competition with Canadian forestry, so they will make comments in the marketplace.

Natural Resources committee  Thank you very much, Mr. Caron. My French is not very good, so I will respond in English if you don't mind. It's an excellent and very timely question. The softwood lumber agreement is scheduled to expire at the end of this year. There will be a year of standstill. We're all free-traders and we believe in open markets.

Natural Resources committee  I think our friends in the United States are very competitive and will obviously be looking for what's in their best interests. I can't predict what they're going to do. In our view the negotiated agreement of 2006 had compromises on both sides to get to where we did get to. If we were to enter into another round of negotiations, we believe we would end up very close to the same spot.

Natural Resources committee  In the forest industry, we cut down the trees and try to use the whole of the tree. The history of innovation in the forest sector has been—again my colleagues on the video screen could give you much more detail than I—to move from 60%, 70%, 80% to now over 90%. We're now at over 95% usage of the tree.

Natural Resources committee  Catherine is the engineer.

Natural Resources committee  I won't be able to do it in a minute, Mr. Chairman, so we will give you a submission on some of the ideas we have. We have a great environmental record. We have a good forest management planning system. We have an aligned innovation structure, with our colleagues at FPInnovations and in the academic community.