Thanks, Mr. Chair.
I think you're going to see some common themes among the business groups. I'm going to do a set-up here in terms of our industry and its importance.
I want to assure you that, because of the robust legislative and regulatory framework we have, we will not be losing our forests in Canada.
NRCan just put out the “State of Canada's Forests” report last week. We have almost 350 million hectares of forest in Canada. We harvested less than 0.5% of that. On top of that, we planted over 500 million seedlings. We can enjoy the social, economic, and environmental benefits of our forests forever. That's a priority we take very seriously in our sector. We work closely with our partners in labour, indigenous governments and communities, and all shared interests along that continuum. I want to table that.
I too support Mr. Suzuki in not wanting more rural migration. One of the best ways to do that is to continue to ensure that there are good economic opportunities in rural communities. Our sector has relationships in some 600 forest-dependent communities from Nackawic, New Brunswick, to Prince George, B.C., and points in between and out a bit.
That's one of the best parts of my job. For somebody who grew up in rural eastern Ontario, I take very personally and am very proud of the commitment of our sector to rural economies and to the spinoff businesses: some 230,000 jobs directly in wood, pulp, paper, increasingly bioenergy, biomaterials, and with a 3:1 ratio, 700,000 other jobs for outfitters, recreational folks, suppliers, and truck drivers who rely on those jobs as well.
Beyond the quality of our products, one of the key selling points on the global stage that I've seen in terms of trade visits I've done in the U.S., the EU, and Asia is the sustainability of our forest practices. People are looking for responsibly sourced products, and Canada is a world leader in that regard.
All the data in terms of our numbers and contributions are clearly in our submission, so let me get right to our primary interests.
You've heard a lot of talk about dispute resolution today. We would echo that very strongly. Any trade deal is only as good as its ability to solve disputes. That's an area where we have a lot of concern. For us, the chapter 19 piece is a biggie.
In regard to improvements to labour mobility, Andrea talked a bit about that, movement of talents across borders, to allow company professionals to cross in and out of the U.S. and Mexico more easily. We have some learning from the TPP. It's interesting to see the TPP come up again. We're interested in seeing how that's going to play, but a lot of work on the TPP was done around regulatory coherence, transparency, and anti-corruption. We would like to see the leveraging of that to support a new NAFTA.
Any work on safeguards should ensure that they cannot be used unfairly to discriminate against Canadian products. To repeat, rules of origin are beneficial for all three countries, especially related to machinery. We want to see clarity around that. We want to see equal access to government procurement. All three countries should have access to that.
I'll leave it there.
There are two things I want to applaud. On most days, the cross-partisan support and the team Canada approach is appreciated. We like seeing that.
Also, thank you to the trade commissioners and their group. They provide a very important function, as do the consuls in the U.S., as well, on this file.
