Thank you.
If you turn to the chart, I have the Canadian dollar forecast there. It shows, by our forecast, that over about the next six months the dollar will probably stay pretty close to par. It will be a bit under par for the latter part of 2008, and 98¢ or so for 2009. That is a combination of slightly weaker energy prices.... Also, that is compensated for. There will probably still be increasing downward pressure on the U.S. dollar generally. But we don't think oil is going to stay anywhere near where it has been in the last month--the $95 range. We see it ending 2008 at around $76.
To your earlier point about China and India, even $76-oil is a pretty high price relative to what people were expecting a few years ago. The Chinese economy in particular has been growing at a phenomenal rate of 9 to 10 percent. I think that is going to be the case for quite a few more years. They're going to demand a lot of our resources, not just for oil, but other metals and so on.
With respect to the demand for oil, to say that it's going to be in the $70 to $75 range is still pretty healthy demand. On the forestry side, though, I think it will be a while before the U.S. housing market comes back and provides the strength we need for our forestry sector.
That's where we see the dollar going, and that's why I think it's really important that whatever assistance you provide is in the nature of adjustment. Firms make these longer-term strategic decisions about investment and plant location. It's a very long-term business. They plan ahead. Even a year or so ago I think people making those big investment decisions such as plant expansion and moving were probably expecting the Canadian dollar to be in the 85¢ to 90¢ range. A very important point is that even if the dollar were to go to 95¢ tomorrow, which would be a fall of a nickel, and stayed there for the next quite a few years, a year from now people making these investment and relocation decisions would be looking at, say a 95¢ dollar, which is probably quite a bit higher than what they were looking at even a year ago.
So with respect to that part of it, the plant expansion and plant location decisions, we have not nearly seen the end of the negative impact from the Canadian dollar yet. We're going to be seeing that for the next two or three years.