Thank you, Mr. Chairman.
Ladies and Gentlemen, welcome to the Committee.
I have done some reading, I have listened to you and I have quite recently met with the association. I am finding more and more that forestry is a fascinating world. The challenges are immense. It is often said that our qualities are matched by our faults, or vice-versa, or that there are always two sides to every story.
On the one hand, forestry is an important component of the Quebec and Canadian economy. We are told that it is the largest industry. We have some statistics: 81 billion dollars in sales, 36.8 percent of our GDP and 34.4 percent of our trade balance. We therefore also trade a lot with other countries. We must, for forest operators and those in the forestry sector, make greater and greater competitiveness gains, in terms of technology and research and development, if we want acceptable performance levels.
On the other hand, forestry represents duties, tremendous responsibilities, because we must think in terms of the forestry ecosystems, of biodiversity. It is said that the forests are the lungs of the planet. They are also carbon sinks and, if we take into account the water table, they are also water.
From an economic standpoint, it is fascinating to see the gains that our forests can produce. From an ecological or environmental standpoint, there is a heavy responsibility.
I hear you talk about biological sequestration and forest management. I would like to know if everyone is in agreement that we are far from having done what we should be doing. We can obviously look at the issue from a strictly economic perspective, but we must also look at it from the environmental perspective.
As a matter of fact, this is what people talk to me about. In my riding, there may not be many forestry producers, but there are quite a few of them not very far away. People tell us, when they see the truckloads of wood on the roads, that it is difficult for them to believe that forest operators do manage to replace the resource.
I would like each one of you to tell me where we are at with regard to resource replacement and environmental protection.