International Trade committee  Thank you, Madam Chair. I appreciate the opportunity to jump the queue, as it were, as my flight is in about 45 minutes, and I have to run. Through you, thank you to the clerk and all members of the committee for the opportunity to join you here today. My name is Jeff Bromley.

Natural Resources committee  It's obviously a no-brainer. Any tax dollars that stay in our communities and benefit our communities in Canada obviously provide that multiplier effect in terms of the economic benefit in supporting those workers in those communities. Again, a lot of those communities in my industry are rural.

Natural Resources committee  Absolutely. It's unequivocal and it's not up for debate, in my opinion. I fight every day for members within our industry. Mills, pulp mills and sawmills, are not, obviously, safe places all the time, but we fight every day to make sure our members are safe in the workplace, and it would be hypocritical of me not to expect the same for my counterparts in firefighting.

Natural Resources committee  There's no question. You've seen examples of that right here in my neck of the woods, for lack of a better term, in southeastern British Columbia and in southern British Columbia, too. One of our operations in Penticton, Structurlam, employs over 200 of our members, producing mass timber and CLT products.

Natural Resources committee  I can use an example from our own organization down south. I was at an international executive board meeting, where I report on our activities from a Canadian perspective. The Biden administration's program, buy America, and the IRA are, in fact, utilizing and trying to reinvigorate different...in terms of the steel industry and using our members there, specifically in the Gary, Indiana, works and in that area, where a lot of our membership works.

Natural Resources committee  The point about obtaining more value out of our timber and our forest resources across the country, not only in British Columbia but in all of our boreal forests across the country, is that it goes without saying that if we can extract more value out of the renewable resource, it pays off in spades in terms of more jobs, more communities that they support, and things of that nature.

Natural Resources committee  Thank you, Chair, and through you, thank you to the clerk and all members of the committee for the opportunity to join here today. My name is Jeff Bromley. I'm the chair of the United Steelworkers Wood Council. I'm speaking to you today on the unceded and traditional territory of the Ktunaxa-speaking people in southeastern British Columbia—Cranbrook, B.C.

Natural Resources committee  I don't know that I look to any particular jurisdictions. I know they do some good stuff in Europe. I still believe firmly that Canada is the leader or is certainly one of the leaders in value-added product manufacturing, specifically on the mass timber and CLT front. I truly believe that if the timber side of the equation wasn't so restricted or so tightened in terms of supplies, to try and take a piece of that supply part of the equation that isn't occupied by the solid wood sector is difficult.

Natural Resources committee  I think that's a good segue to the topic that we've been leading. There is that value, in terms of those tariffs that are out there.... We sincerely believe that at some point there's going to be a deal. There's going to be a measure of those duties that they've paid. My counterpart, Ms.

Natural Resources committee  I agree. I don't think that any restriction.... The problem we'll find, though, will be fibre availability and then making the best use of that fibre. It's a good point.

Natural Resources committee  In terms of finalizing the softwood lumber agreement—and to address the comments of my counterpart Mr. Roberts, you're right, it's not going away—it's to the point that there are pundits and commentators who now, I believe accurately, characterize the billions in dollars of duties as a dividend for those southern producers who have so much influence in Washington.

Natural Resources committee  One thing that is about as predictable as the weather is the lumber industry. It is very cyclical, very “peaks and valleys”. That's just the unfortunate nature of the beast. We have layoffs and we have closures, but the employment insurance system is important for the base support of workers, which the employers and the workers all pay into.

Natural Resources committee  Thank you, Mr. Chair. On behalf of over 14,000 members of the United Steelworkers in the forest industry across the Canada, including over 80 members of my counterpart operation in NorSask Forest Products up in Meadow Lake, Saskatchewan, I thank the committee for the opportunity, for inviting us to contribute to your important work on the economic recovery of this critical and historic sector in Canada's economy.