Let's start off with the mountain pine beetle. First of all, research dollars are going into mountain pine beetle, and some people believe it's been researched to death. We have our own scientists in the department. We have the Pacific Forestry Centre right in Victoria, where the scientists are doing research on an ongoing basis. One principle we have committed to on this is that we will not spend any of this money unless the Province of British Columbia's Ministry of Forests and Range and Natural Resources Canada both agree that this is in the interests and this is where we should be going.
There will be a number of key factors, and those discussions are ongoing and very positive. But research is being done now. The infestation in British Columbia is incredibly large. It's the size of the province of New Brunswick. In some sense, it's almost creating an economic boom in some parts, because as this wood is killed, it's still merchantable timber while it's still standing. So the forest companies need to harvest this timber at an accelerated rate because it's going to decay over time, and the longer you wait, the less value the timber will have. So that's one part of it, accelerating the harvest. There are ways we can support that.
One of the other problems we're looking at--and many of these communities will see a bit of an economic bonanza right now in the short term--is what's going to happen 10 years from now, when that timber is no longer valuable enough to be turned into merchantable timber. It's a serious problem. Then we could see a massive decline in the forestry in those communities. A lot of them are single-industry communities. So there's also a focus on economic diversification. Are there ways it could create new meaningful jobs? Those are some of the areas they're looking at.
I can give you some suggestions. It's been suggested we should be looking at the geosciences. Some work was done in certain areas where there was an extraordinary amount of new mining claims, where this geoscience work was done--very successful. So those are just some of the things that are happening. Obviously, fire suppression is an issue. In some of the communities surrounded by mountain pine beetle, there's a belief there will be a very high increase in fire risk, and that we need to take down some of that timber surrounding some of these communities.
But I will say that regarding all the money, whether it's for research or these other initiatives, the province and the federal government are in absolute lockstep, working together in the best interests of the province.
Just quickly on nuclear, you raised it. I believe nuclear has a significant role to play. We're seeing a lot more activity. There hasn't been a new nuclear reactor built in this country for over 35 years. We're now hearing talk of two new nuclear reactors. For the Canadian Nuclear Safety Commission, yes, there was an increase in their funding. It's a regulatory agency. They will need more resources to do their work. I have to tell you that I think every single Canadian should visit a nuclear reactor. I was at Bruce Power and I was unbelievably impressed with what they're doing there. I found it amazing that this nuclear reactor provides, I believe, up to 25% of Ontario's hydroelectricity, and that all the nuclear waste in 35 years would have fit inside a hockey arena. Some of the research they're doing on the next generation of nuclear right now is to reuse spent fuel or take that nuclear fuel down to an even much lower radioactive level, so the storage becomes less of a problem.
So there are some very exciting opportunities. Nuclear obviously has no emissions, no pollutants, no NOx, no SOx, no greenhouse gases. It's a very clean form of energy. So I think the renaissance in the nuclear industry is coming back. I think it's very positive. I think there are opportunities--I'll say this--in the oil sands, for small nuclear reactors to generate the heat to recover the bitumen from the sand, which would have a significant reduction in greenhouse gases. So it's a very clean form of energy, and one that I'm very supportive of.