I think it has a great future and it is something this government is very committed to. As you know, in our 2006 budget we committed $400 million over the next two years to the forest sector alone--$200 million specifically allocated to the pine beetle and $200 million specifically to the restructuring of the industry and helping it meet some of its challenges.
I've met with the officials of the Forest Products Association of Canada. I'm looking forward to working with them. They've been very receptive in looking at how we can best provide services to them to ensure that this industry goes forward.
As we talked about earlier--and I won't get into this in any length--the Softwood Lumber Agreement has been an enormous weight around the neck of the forest industry, something that has caused it significant pain in recent years, and we now have an opportunity to move beyond that to give the industry the certainty it needs.
I think it's a very exciting opportunity. We have challenges in British Columbia with the pine beetle--no question about it. Natural Resources Canada is working collectively with the Province of British Columbia to support that industry, to do the research and put the investments in that are required.
I know the head of the Canadian Forest Service, Brian Emmett, at Natural Resources Canada is meeting with his counterparts in the province, and they're sitting down saying, it's not about B.C., it's not about Canada; it's about how we can best ensure that every dollar we spend complements the other, moving it forward to best help the industry.
The fact that we're making these investments, that there are people working on it, and that we're working with the provinces makes me very optimistic about where the forest industry can go in the next 10 years. This softwood lumber agreement is for seven years, with an option for two more years; it creates nine years of certainty. Throughout that period we can continue to ensure even longer certainty beyond that.
I think we have made absolute significant gains through this sector in the recent months, again, starting with leadership right from the Prime Minister and the Minister of International Trade to the Minister of Finance's committing $400 million to one industry. This is a significant amount of money to commit in a budget, and it shows our commitment to that sector.
Thank you.