Thank you, Mr. Chairman, and thank you very much for a comprehensive presentation that addresses some of the issues.
I would agree with you that there's no doubt the industry has been very resilient faced with a whole bunch of challenges you've taken on in productivity and in some of the things you're doing. Let's look at the challenges in certain areas. I would agree we should do anything we can with respect to incentives on the energy side of things, in promoting wood not only here but around the world.
From when I was in China and the Middle East and elsewhere, I know people are yearning for Canadian wood products. Whether or not you use a free trade instrument, there are some challenges, obviously. Korea is one, where they may want our wood, but we don't necessarily want their cars unless they're prepared to give us access. I think these sectoral issues have to be managed. There's no doubt that we need to look beyond the United States as our single most important market, and I think there is a world yearning for Canadian wood, for all the reasons you've indicated.
But let me address two areas.
Even if we can't do anything about the dollar, I would ask what it is we need to mitigate it. Even the Bank of Canada has said, and everybody thinks, the dollar is going to continue to appreciate, so what instrument can we use? Is it taxes? Is it capital cost allowance? And should we look at how quickly and by how much we allow certain changes in that so that you can continue to be as productive as you possibly can?
I'd like to know about human resources in the sector, because every sector this committee has heard from, be it the auto sector, the building sector, or the manufacturing sector, says in seven to ten years we face an incredible challenge. I don't care what kind of economy you want to build; you can have all the capital in the world, and all the technology, but if you don't have people, you don't have anything. Therefore, I'd like to know, what is it we need to do on the human resources side to attract and retrain a whole bunch of people all over the place? In order to sustain a great industry, we have to find you the people who might want to work in that area.
Could you talk a little about what kind of capital cost allowance we have to put in place, and how quickly and how much, to mitigate the situation? How do we deal with energy costs? And what do we do about the human resource challenges you face in your industry? What are some of the incentives, or what are the things we need to do, to make sure you have the people to work in this very productive sector?