Thank you, Mr. Chair. Thank you for the invitation to appear before the committee as part of this study.
FPAC is the national trade association for the industry. I want to give you three quick messages as part of a narrative. I won't take the full time, because I do want to get into more of a dialogue with your questions and answers.
You're looking at the manufacturing industry as a strategic sector, and certainly the forest products industry is a strategic sector. We operate across the country, coast to coast. We use an abundant natural resource that Canada has and for which Canada is a leader in certification. We're transforming beyond our traditional suite of products into new bioproducts, which I'll explain in a bit.
We've had prosperity for the last 200 years, which the industry has helped to generate. We can do that for another 200 years, but not for just lumber and pulp and paper products.
We also have a great story to tell on climate change. We can do more, and we think that's another reason why you should give good consideration to how the forest products industry fits in your overall study.
I have some quick, simple facts about the industry. As I said, we operate across the country. We sell $65 billion worth of products at home and abroad to 180 different countries around the world. We employ 230,000 Canadians in largely rural and remote areas of the country, but also some in urban areas. They're good, well-paying jobs and certainly above the average.
In terms of our environmental performance, quite admittedly we were not always good stewards, but we've cleaned up our act. In fact, we are now leading the world in third-party certification of sustainable forest management practices.
We have cleaned up our act in terms of air emissions, water emissions, and landfill, and we're very proud of our green credentials. We have a market study that indicates we have the best reputation in the world. We want to maintain that not only for our brand in the marketplace, but also because we operate largely on public forest land, and that social licence to operate is important to us and part of our raison d'être.
I gave you folders; feel free to take a look at them as I'm talking. One of our new initiatives on the environment is on climate change. We have made rather significant reductions in our own emissions, but we think we can do a little more. We think we can store more carbon in the forests, and we think that the products we sell can store more carbon as they're used. There's a brochure in there that talks more about that, and I'm happy to answer questions later.
In terms of the transformation I talked about, we went through a dark period. Necessity is the mother of all invention, and we figured out we can do a lot of new and interesting things with wood fibre beyond lumber, wood panels, pulp and paper, tissue, and packaging.
Essentially, anything you refine petroleum into, you can refine wood into. If you want green power, we can do that by burning bark and pulping liquor. We do that for our own power. We do that for our own heat, but we export to the grid. It could also supply district heating systems, particularly for remote communities.
If we want biofuels, we can be a feedstock provider and help convert the wood biomass into biofuels, whether it be ethanol or biodiesel.
If you want biochemicals, you can get sugar from trees. You can get carbon black for tires from trees and also carbon fibre for high-end bicycles and automotive applications.
We are leading the world in the production of nanocrystalline cellulose, where we break the cellulose down to the nano level. It can be used as a strengthening additive for our traditional products, but we can also use it as a coating for metal alloys to make our planes, trains, and automobiles lighter and more fuel efficient.
Cellulose filaments, which are a slightly larger size, can be used, again, as a strengthening additive for our traditional products, or they can be used to strengthen cement, for concrete-making, to make our buildings and other infrastructure lighter and less carbon-intensive.
Flat-screen TVs could have acetates from wood fibre in the screens. There are paints that could have polymers from wood fibre. There are cosmetics that could have ingredients from wood fibre. Pharmaceuticals have fillers and coatings made from cellulose, either to slow the body's absorption of the medicinal ingredients, or as a coating to make it easier on our tummies.
There are a lot of things we can do with wood fibre, some of which we are doing now and a lot more of which we can do in the future.
Now, not all of these technologies are commercial, so one area that Natural Resources Canada has been very helpful with over the last number of years is helping to de-risk the commercialization of some of these technologies. We would like to see the government continue that.
Besides all the technology, we are also innovating our business models. We are diversifying our geographic markets to expand beyond our heavy reliance on the U.S. industry and U.S. marketplace, so China and India are huge markets and growth opportunities for us. We are expanding into new uses of some of our traditional products. We have been using lumber, wood panels, and engineered wood products in our homes for a long time, but we can build with wood in non-residential buildings, whether it be commercial or industrial, and certainly taller wood buildings.
The other area that some of my colleagues also mentioned is competition globally. We are not alone in this effort to do new things with wood fibre. Our competitors in Scandinavian countries, Brazil, and elsewhere are chasing the same dreams and opportunities. Where we are first in line, we can perhaps get an advantage through being the first mover, so that is important as well.
I think I will leave it at that and perhaps leave more time for questions and answers.
Thank you.