Thank you for your questions.
You've touched on a number of issues. Let me talk about the log exports, because obviously that's something very dear to your heart. You and I are both from Vancouver Island. It's not an issue in the rest of British Columbia; predominantly it's a Vancouver Island issue.
With respect to using the forestry debris, there are really opportunities in the heartland of British Columbia, where we have the pine beetle kill. There are things like the pellet industry, in which they use all that kind of forestry debris, as well as some of the beetle wood. There are some pretty keen opportunities there.
With regard to log exports specifically, first of all, what happens now is that no logs are exported unless no company in that area is interested in them. In fact, if somebody wants to export logs, they have to go to an agency, and they would actually advertise that these logs are going to be available. They would go out to all of the local industry. If nobody's interested in these logs, then they're deemed to be excess, and they would receive a permit to export a certain amount of logs.
I understand your concern. We've seen some of the more inefficient mills close right across parts of Canada, and they're struggling.
One of the proposals that has been put on the table is a suggestion for a lumber equivalent export tax, and we're looking at that proposal. One of the disadvantages on log export is logs can be exported, and they're not paying any of the export taxes that softwood lumber would actually have to pay. So if we actually put on an export tax, that would put it at a level playing field. It would at least level the playing field where they're processed on either side of the border.
That's something Minister Emerson is looking at. It's being looked at with the province. We actually work together. The federal government is responsible for logs coming off private lands for export, and the provincial government is responsible for logs coming off crown lands, so it really has to be looked at together. That's one of the areas they are looking at to help these communities protect those jobs.
I hear your concerns loud and clear, but I want to stress that there is absolutely not one log that goes across the border that is not first offered to all the local industry people; they all have access to it first. They have first right of refusal, if I can use that, and only then would an export permit be issued, and it's only for a certain amount. That process is actually done jointly, with both crown and private lands; they use a similar process.
You touched on $125 million. What did we do with that money? We made a commitment, as you know, of $200 million to help the forest industry become more competitive. We went to organizations like FPAC, the Forest Products Association of Canada, and asked them how we could best help the industry. We asked them to tell us what their industry was telling them.
They gave us some very clear suggestions. One of the things we did was bring together Paprican, FERIC, and Forintek, three individual research institutes, under one umbrella, called FPInnovations. This is now the largest public-private forestry research institution in the world.
Its board of directors is made up of forest company CEOs, and they set the priorities. They're deciding how to move this forward. They're deciding the priorities for this funding.
We're listening to the industry. We're going to the industry. As a government we're asking how we can best help, and that's been the result of our actions.