Thank you very much. I really appreciate this opportunity.
My name is Tom Sundher, and I'm the president of the Sundher Group. I'd like to thank you for this opportunity to present to the Standing Committee on International Trade with regard to a CEPA with India.
Since my background and expertise is in forest products, specifically lumber, most of my comments will be directed at this segment.
First of all, I would like to give you a bit of background about myself. In 1907 my grandfather walked off the fields in the Punjab for what he had heard was a better life with greater opportunities in a country called Canada, and specifically British Columbia. He later sent for my father, who joined him in 1924.
I was born and raised in Port Alberni, the home of some of the most magnificent forests and wood products in the world. I attended university in Vancouver, and I am married with two adult sons.
I have worked for several of B.C.'s large forest products companies, as well as latterly establishing my own company, Coast Clear Wood. Both my sons now work with me in the custom cutting of west coast logs for a specialized customer base and exporting B.C. forest products, specifically lumber, to India.
Our company has had the honour of winning two B.C. export awards for our expertise in manufacturing and marketing, one in 2005 for manufactured products, and the other in 2011 for primary products.
Additionally, we are now the exclusive marketing agents in India for two of Canada’s leading forest product producers, Western Forest Products and Weyerhaeuser.
Our opportunities have been tremendous. Even one of my grandsons was drafted recently by the NHL, by the Buffalo hockey club. You can’t get much more Canadian than that. But he got onto an American team; we're waiting for a Canadian team.