Thank you, Mr. Chair.
Thank you, witnesses, for appearing today.
I'd be interested to get your numbers on the changes in the forestry industry, because I was presented with a pre-budget brief from the president of the New Brunswick Forest Products Association who said there's a study referenced by APEC saying that there were 8,000 jobs just in Atlantic Canada that were lost in the forestry industry between 2004 and 2006. That does not include 2007, in which a number of sawmills as well as large pulp and paper mills in New Brunswick closed down, including those in Miramichi, Bathurst, and Dalhousie. I'd be interested to know what's going on there. As well, with the dollar exchange, every penny it goes up costs the industry about $5 million in Atlantic Canada.
One of the comments that was made was that some of the forest innovation side has been traditionally delivered by ACOA, through the Atlantic Innovation Fund. The challenge with that fund is that you apply once per year, and it's slow on the innovation side. One of the questions was whether, given the challenges, there would be the possibility of a dedicated fund for innovation.
I see that FPInnovations is like that. What is the delivery mechanism for these funds from the innovation program, and is it based on initial individual applications or is it based geographically, or how is that delivered?