Thank you very much, Mr. Benoit, and thank you, all, very much for inviting us here today.
It's an honour to be able to share with you some of the innovative work the Canadian Boreal Forest Agreement signatories are doing as part of renewing Canada's forest industry.
My name is Aran O'Carroll, and as the chair said, I'm the executive director of the Canadian Boreal Forest Agreement Secretariat, which is based here in Ottawa.
I'm sure many of you are familiar with the work of the CBFA, which brings together environmental organizations and forest companies from across Canada's boreal region to work together towards a sustainable future for that ecosystem and the jobs and communities that rely on it.
Before I begin, I'd just like to introduce my colleague Mark Hubert. Mark is the vice-president of environmental leadership with the Forest Products Association of Canada, one of the signatories of the Canadian Boreal Forest Agreement both as an association and with their membership. Mark is the senior industry representative to the Canadian Boreal Forest Agreement. Mark will be available for questions and answers after my presentation.
In 2008 Canada's forest industry was unquestionably in crisis, facing a soaring Canadian dollar, depressed U.S. housing market, and intensifying global competition amongst other things. At that time, this committee held hearings—as the chair reminded you—and concluded that industry, governments, and other stakeholders needed “to work together to lay the groundwork for the industry's renewal, prosperity and sustainability”.
In 2010, after two years of intensive negotiations, the CBFA answered that call to action, as forest industry partners and environmental groups signed on to the most ambitious conservation agreement in the world. But the agreement isn't just about conservation. It's also about the health, sustainability, and prosperity of Canada's forest industry. The CBFA recognizes that, although forestry and conservation in Canada's boreal forest rest primarily with governments—including, very importantly, aboriginal governments—both the industry and the environmental community have a responsibility to help forge that future.
Imagine a future for a moment, if you would, in which manufacturers of high-end products look for ways to appeal to ever more environmentally conscious consumers, and Canada's forest products are in demand the world over. The CBFA is part of that vision. The work we are doing is helping to differentiate the Canadian boreal forest industry in the global marketplace by showcasing its world-leading commitment to sustainability.
We're achieving real progress towards that goal, but sometimes we forget the scale and scope of the challenge we face. The boreal forest is Canada's largest terrestrial ecosystem. It's the largest wilderness area on the planet, and more than half a million Canadians depend upon a competitive boreal forest industry for their livelihoods. The road to progress involves preserving both of these national treasures and finding ways for them to thrive together and endure for the sake of conservation and economic prosperity.
As you can imagine, bringing diverse interests together towards this common goal is not always easy. We've endured some setbacks, but the agreement has also seen some significant progress. Northwest of here, in Ontario, the provincial government is working on implementation of our recommendations, which aim to secure the future of the three million hectares of boreal caribou range found in the Abitibi River Forest, to conserve those woodland caribou, and also to maintain hundreds of jobs in the local communities.
In Alberta, our working group has drafted a set of recommendations for caribou conservation for one of the most contested areas of Canada, northeastern Alberta—ground zero for the oil sands operations. These draft recommendations have been shared with the provincial government and have been the subject of productive discussions between the CBFA, the oil and gas sector, and first nations.
In Newfoundland, the CBFA participants have contributed to the government's new forest management strategy, which identifies significantly large landscapes, about five million hectares, or approximately 50% of the island of Newfoundland, for a 10-year deferral from harvest. This supports the CBFA's conservation planning work, but at the same time the commercial forest management area set out in this strategy creates certainty for economic development and the promised forest development strategy will help ensure the prosperity of Newfoundland's forest sector.
We're proud of these sorts of developments under the CBFA. Environmentalists and industry leaders are working together to support provincial leadership in making the forest economy truly sustainable. This work is contributing to Canada's forest industry transformation from its traditional role as hewers of wood to a truly renewable and responsible source of eco-friendly, high-tech materials as advances in technology make wood an increasingly desirable material.
For example, Lincoln Motor Company has announced a new project in collaboration with the CBFA member Weyerhaeuser, and Johnson Controls, to use wood as an alternative input to fibreglass in auto parts. Meanwhile, in the world of consumer electronics, there's a very exciting prospect of wood-derived touchscreen technology, which could soon displace non-renewable plastics. Even neighbourhoods are being transformed as architects look to new engineered wood products such as cross-laminated timber, which has the strength of steel and comes from a renewable resource.
A future where a reinvigorated Canadian forest industry can compete in new and previously unimagined markets on the strength of its celebrated environmental and social credentials is within our reach. I believe the committee's call for collaboration in the face of the 2008 forestry crisis strikes at the heart of the matter. The CBFA is real evidence of the success that can come from cross-sectoral collaboration and a move from an era of adversarial positions to one based on the joint pursuit of common solutions.
As our forest industry continues to diversify and revitalize itself, I hope that all stakeholders can work together towards a stronger and more competitive forest industry and a better protected and more sustainably managed boreal forest.
Thank you. Mr. Hubert and I look forward to any questions you may have.