Thanks very much for the opportunity to talk today.
I want to pick up on some of the comments that were mentioned earlier. My colleague Professor Cohen said one of the main issues is that globalization is a reality. In Vancouver this week, I think we have Minister Lunn as a member of the GLOBE conference, which has about 10,000 delegates. Again, this is an indication that the environment and globalization is a reality.
I want to cover two main points. One is timeframe. I tend to use this example. At a university we look at a 40-year to 50-year timeframe, because if anyone has come through tertiary education, hopefully the education they pick up is relevant for about 40 or 50 years. The other point Professor Cohen made is that it takes about 100 years to grow a tree. We don't have a very good idea what that tree will be used for in that 50-year to 100-year time, so we have to be innovative.
There are multiple values from our forests. We've had very good experience with a group such as Greenpeace. If we're seen globally not to be managing our forests in an environmentally sensitive way, that has a big impact on our markets. If we're not seen as good stewards of this resource, we're not going to be able to sell many of our products. We know that's a reality.
My main punchline today is that we have to focus on the three Rs. Number one is recruitment. We mentioned the example of Finland. I think one of the problems we have in Canada is that many of our young people don't want to work in the resource sector. If you look at forestry, agriculture, even mining, which is very hot now, it's problematic to get young people into universities to do research in those programs. We have the statistics that tell us there's a problem getting people into forestry, agriculture, and mining. Considering that is Canada's bread and butter and that it will continue to be so, that's a problem. So the first R is recruitment.
The second one we've heard about is research. Our investment in Canada is terrible, so looking at how we can be innovative and the products we can get from our trees, we have a big problem. I think the current industry is struggling. If you look at the companies at the GLOBE conference, for example, it's not the traditional forest companies; it's the energy companies, the oil companies. There's a recognition that we're going to move away from a hydrocarbon economy, from coal and oil, to an economy based on carbohydrates. It's going to be agriculture and forestry. It's interesting that the research part of forestry may well come from outside the traditional forest sector.
I call my third R reinvention. We heard earlier about the cyclical nature of the forest sector. We're not in a cycle now, we're in a major sea change. We may come back a bit, but as Dave pointed out, if we're relying on market pulp or two-by-fours, we're not going to make it. We're going to have to be very innovative in terms of the products we get from our forests. More importantly, if you look at how the global economy is going--this bio-refinery concept--the same way we look at refining oil, we're going to have to refine biomass. We've talked mostly about oil--$110. Within this 50-year timeframe, if I again come back to how long our students should be relevant, it's inevitable we're going to be making a lot more than two-by-fours from our forests.
I will finish with an example. One of the earlier speakers talked about Denmark. Denmark now gets about 25% of its electricity from wind. If you fly to Denmark, you'll see windmills. I heard the minister of environment say that the national flower in Denmark is the windmill; that's how prevalent they are. The more impressive statistic from Denmark is that 50% of all windmills sold globally are made in Denmark. We should be aspiring in Canada to not only use our resource in a very innovative and effective way, but to be the developers of the technology that we can sell to the rest of the world.
My punchline is that we need to concentrate on the three Rs: recruitment, let's get our brightest and best to work in the resource sector; research, we need to be innovative with the resource we've got; and reinvention, how are we going to reinvent the forest sector.
Thanks very much for this opportunity to give my two cents' worth.