Thank you very much for the question.
I've been hearing and receiving strong feedback from our forestry sector. There have been many positive developments in forestry since the very difficult recession that hit the industry quite hard.
The positive feedback includes an increase of 600% in exports to China and over 13,000 more employees. Of course, there is still work to be done, and the industry is still in a period of transition. I have had a number of round tables with forestry companies to listen to their concerns, from coast to coast, and the message I've been receiving is that our programs are having a positive effect and that we need to stay the course.
The Forest Products Association Canada recently said the following: The forest sector has been aggressively re-inventing itself with government as a critical partner. We are now at the point where industry efforts to transform are making an impact. However we still need an ongoing partnership so that industry can build on the existing momentum, and help protect jobs and rural communities.
Our government has been and will continue to be an ongoing partner with the forestry industry. I should just say that in a suite of market programs including Canada Wood, North American Wood First, and the Value to Wood, we are supporting the expansion of market opportunities for Canadian wood producers. As I mentioned in my remarks, I was recently in China and Japan, where I witnessed these programs in action.
I was at the Tianjin economic development area, or what they call TEDA, for a celebration of the first four-storey wood-frame building. There was much fanfare, dragons, banners, and so on, and they were very pleased. Of course, it really showcased our wood and our cross-laminated technologies, as here we had the first four-storey wood building in China. This really creates great hope for the industry.
In Japan, I visited Sendai, which was one of the areas hit by the tsunami—and I have to say in that regard that the courage, dignity, and resourcefulness of the Japanese people is truly awesome. I was there when the first foreign ship had just arrived, carrying Canadian lumber. The Government of Canada had invested some $2 million—the Government of British Columbia as well, and the forest industry. And so Canadian wood is going into the construction of community housing, because there are literally thousands, many thousands, of Japanese who are in temporary housing, and they can now see the beauty and durability of Canadian wood.
I heard a dismissive remark from another party that we don't want to promote wood because wood rots. Let me tell you that in Beijing, it was 1,400 years ago that the forbidden city was built, and it remains a source of tremendous pride to the Chinese to this day. So, talk about durability.