International Trade Committee on May 14th, 2021

[Daniel Blaikie, NDP, Elmwood—Transcona, MB]

That's wonderful.

[The Chair, Liberal, Judy Sgro]

Thank you very much.

Thank you, Mr. Blaikie.

We move on to Mrs. Gray for five minutes.

[Tracy Gray, Conservative, Kelowna—Lake Country, BC]

Thank you, Madam Chair.

Thank you to the witnesses for being here today.

I'm going to go to the Forest Products Association first and build on the questioning from my colleague MP Lobb.

You've raised concerns about legislation currently going through the process in New York and California that could harm our forestry exports, if passed into law.

First, what percentage of our U.S. exports goes to California and New York?

[Kate Lindsay]

I don't have the breakdowns for those two states right now, but the U.S. in total is a significant market for Canada. B.C. and Alberta would be a significant provider for California, and Ontario and Quebec would be a significant provider for the state of New York.

[Tracy Gray, Conservative, Kelowna—Lake Country, BC]

That's fair enough.

It's quite interesting that two very similar laws are going through two state legislatures at the same time. Do you foresee the risk of other states maybe introducing legislation around this as well? Are you hearing that at all?

[Kate Lindsay]

We are taking this very seriously. We have seen that past procurement laws in the state of California in particular have historically been focused on tropical deforestation. The fact that we're seeing the Canadian boreal forest included in this legislation is very concerning. Canada is a leader. We have the strongest legislation to maintain sustainable forest management and to maintain forests in Canada.

Even the preamble within these two pieces of legislation is very concerning. We believe that it's going to be discriminatory toward Canada, and we want to ensure that it's not passed unless it's amended to be workable. We want to prevent it from being precedent-setting for other U.S. states.

[Tracy Gray, Conservative, Kelowna—Lake Country, BC]

Thank you. You actually answered my next question, so I'll go to another here.

What effects could this legislation potentially have if it comes into force, specifically around job losses, potentially, in the Canadian industry?

[Kate Lindsay]

Almost 70% of the area under forest management in Canada is in the boreal forest. It's a significant region where forest management takes place. In particular, there's an anti-forestry ENGO behind this legislation as the co-sponsor. What they are targeting is the northern limit of the forest management area, an area that is important to wood supply, but very important to northern forestry communities, in particular indigenous communities.

This is where you see really important co-management and indigenous-owned forest management operations, such as NorSask or Canadian Kraft in Manitoba, which partners with seven first nations, and in some areas in northwestern Ontario and Quebec where you're seeing joint ventures taking place. That is really where there stands to be an impact and harm to those communities and workers. We know that over 230,000 people are employed in the forest sector, up to a million indirectly employed, and there are 1,400 indigenous-owned forest businesses as part of the forest sector as well.

[Tracy Gray, Conservative, Kelowna—Lake Country, BC]

I understand that the Forest Products Association of Canada is calling on the federal government to go to bat for our forestry sector and those hundreds of thousands of jobs that you refer to. What could the federal government and our trade minister be doing right now to get this issue resolved?

[Kate Lindsay]

We have been engaging very much with Minister Ng and with Global Affairs Canada. There's been very positive engagement to date with the consulate offices in San Francisco and Albany as well. More discussions are taking place also with Natural Resources Canada. We would say that we appreciate the engagement to date and we know that it may have to ramp up as these two pieces of legislation make their way through the legislative processes, so we encourage more support.

We've also had great support from labour, both Unifor and United Steelworkers, and from more and more communities—both municipal and indigenous communities have also written directly.

We're encouraged by the support, and we look for further, ongoing discussion with Minister Ng and the rest of the federal government.

[The Chair, Liberal, Judy Sgro]

Thank you very much.

We'll go on to Mr. Dhaliwal for five minutes, please.

[Sukh Dhaliwal, Liberal, Surrey—Newton, BC]

Thank you, Madam Chair.

I would echo the comments made by my dear friend Terry Sheehan. It's a fabulous testimony. I also want to thank my friend for wearing a green tie for clean tech.

My first question will go to Ms. Jeannette Jackson. In collaboration with EDC last year, Foresight developed a social media campaign dedicated to recognizing the entrepreneurial women who are leading clean technologies and innovation in Canada. Could you please comment on ways to increase the participation of women in the clean tech sector?

[Jeanette Jackson]

Absolutely.

We are working very hard on how to incorporate diversity and inclusion across all of our programming, campaigns and initiatives. It's really about relationship building and connecting with communities at a much deeper level. We do that by working with other accelerators because we have a clean technology focus. A lot of other accelerators and innovation communities are more generic—they are health tech, etc. We really lean in with these different partners to have the opportunity to engage once the clean technology companies hit a certain level of maturity.

We have put forward a few proposals to different government agencies for a “women in clean tech” program. MaRS has done some work with the ventures and RBC. We have identified over 50 women who are clean technology leaders across the country.

It's really about capacity and having some bandwidth to lean in on that. We'd love to mobilize some resources to develop and grow that campaign and all the women involved in the clean technology sector.

[Sukh Dhaliwal, Liberal, Surrey—Newton, BC]

Ms. Mahima Sharma and Ms. Kate Lindsay, do you have anything to add?

[Kate Lindsay]

There are similar initiatives under way in the forest sector as well. There is a really big initiative under way called Free to Grow, which is particularly focused on expanding women in the forest sector in Canada at all levels and positions. There are a number of other initiatives under way at different forestry colleges and institutes and lots of informal networks going on. Women in Wood is one that is really growing in popularity.

Just ensuring that there is a safe place for women to join the sector and having, absolutely, an inclusive, diverse workforce moving forward is going to be better for everyone.

[Sukh Dhaliwal, Liberal, Surrey—Newton, BC]

Ms. Sharma mentioned net zero by 2050. Could you expand on the role that the forest products industry can play in green recovery? Also, how can the industry play a role on an international goal shared by many of our partners towards net zero by 2050?

[Mahima Sharma]

Kate, why don't you start this one? I can fill in the gaps.

[Kate Lindsay]

Sure.

We're well under way in putting together the forest sector contribution to Canada's net-zero pathway by 2050. In particular, we're focusing on the role of the forest, where we can sequester more carbon, and the role of the products. That's what Mahima talked about, with low-carbon alternatives and bioproducts, and also in the facilities, with reduced emissions. There is a lot of great work happening with fuel switching as a result of biomass. Through the transportation network, there's switching from truck to rail and other infrastructure modal shifts.

In addition, the biomass and some of the wood residue is definitely going to help other sectors decarbonize, whether in the production of steel.... A great example right now is one of our mills—the Resolute mill in Saint-Félicien, Quebec. Waste heat from the pulp mill is actually going into a greenhouse to reduce the energy needs of that greenhouse in growing cucumbers.

There are a lot of great examples of the forest sector contributing to a broader net-zero play.

[The Chair, Liberal, Judy Sgro]

Thank you very much, Ms. Lindsay.

We'll go on to Mr. Savard-Tremblay for two and a half minutes, please.

[Simon-Pierre Savard-Tremblay, Bloc, Saint-Hyacinthe—Bagot, QC]

Thank you, Madam Chair.

I would like to address the representatives from the Forest Products Association of Canada.

I would like to give you the opportunity to correct a widespread misconception. The forest industry is often associated with clear-cutting. Instead of having an eco-responsible industry, the impression could be the opposite. That behaviour could be extremely serious.

A Quebec documentary, which dates back some 20 years and is entitled L'erreur boréale, was made for the National Film Board. The documentary was directed by Richard Desjardins, a well-known artist in Quebec. It was a good picture of the time, but could you tell us how the situation has evolved? Does clear-cutting still happen?

I think this is a great opportunity to reverse a persistent misconception.

[Kate Lindsay]

Thank you very much for the question. It's an excellent point.

There is a lot of misinformation and misconception about forestry practices. The most progressive practices today are really around understanding the natural range of variations. Particularly in the boreal forest, for example, fire is a dominant; it's a disturbance-driven ecosystem, largely fire-driven. Forestry is now mimicking the frequency of fire and the patterns of fire so we can work within what's called ecosystem-based forest management.

We're also seeing that so many of the other values that are important for wildlife species, for soil and for water, are being incorporated into forest management planning, as well as all the value that is locally provided. For the most part, in Canada, this is being done on public land, so local voices, indigenous communities, have the opportunity to feed into those long-term forest management plans, which are done over 100 to 150 years. Therefore, very much so, clear-cutting is not the same image in our mind that it might have been 30 or 40 years ago. It's really about sustainability, ecosystem-based management and resilient forests for the future.

[The Chair, Liberal, Judy Sgro]

Thank you very much, Ms. Lindsay.

To our witnesses, we have to move on to our next group of witnesses. We have quite a few departmental officials who are coming up for the next part of our meeting.

Thank you very much to the witnesses we had today on this segment. It has been very informative.

I will suspend for a few minutes until we manage to get everybody set up with their microphones.

[The Chair, Liberal, Judy Sgro]

We call this meeting back to order.

We welcome officials from the Department of Foreign Affairs, Trade and Development, the Department of Industry, the Department of Natural Resources, the Department of the Environment, and from the Business Development Bank of Canada and Export Development Canada.

It's a big group of witnesses, and we very much look forward to their comments.

Before I open up the floor to our witnesses, Monsieur Savard-Tremblay, you had a very quick point you wanted to make.

[Simon-Pierre Savard-Tremblay, Bloc, Saint-Hyacinthe—Bagot, QC]

Madam Chair, I will be brief, because the witnesses probably have a lot to say.

Following the motion I introduced in connection with Bill C-216, you said last Friday that you were prepared to find a way to move up our consideration of it.

Where are you in your thinking?

[The Chair, Liberal, Judy Sgro]

Thank you. We are still working on it.

All right, Ms. Kwan, you have the floor, please.