Thank you very much for inviting me to make this presentation.
I am Bob Matters. I am formerly a forestry worker who lived and raised a family, or more importantly my wife raised our family, in a rural forest-dependent community.
The United Steelworkers is the largest private sector union in North America with some 250,000 members in Canada and 800,000 continent-wide.
We represent close to 55,000 workers in every aspect of forestry, from growing seedlings, to logging, to the production of lumber and finished products, again in rural, forest-dependent communities.
The last decade has been a difficult one for Canadian forest workers. Between 2000 and 2013 in Canada, forest industry employment dropped by some 41%, 150,000 jobs. That's 150,000 families, again in rural, resource-based communities which were deeply impacted.
Today there are fewer integrated forest companies that manage the forest resource from harvest to the production of a finished product. Consolidation and rationalization coupled with foreign investment have changed many of the companies operating in our country.
Long-standing firms no longer exist in Canada while Bay Street has become the new employer for many of our members working in—my theme—rural, forest-dependent communities.
Meanwhile there has been little private sector capital investment in new manufacturing in Canada, while some of our Canadian forest companies are, in fact, expanding their footprint in the United States.
There have been a significant number of mill closures over the past decade. Manufacturing capacity remains quite high while fibre supply is shrinking. We're having difficulties.
A highly productive workforce with ongoing technological change suggests further rationalization and job loss will come unless significant steps are taken to encourage the expansion of the forest products manufacturing beyond primary products such as pulp, paper, and of course lumber.
I'll talk briefly about the softwood lumber agreement because that has a huge impact particularly on smaller operations in Canada.
Canada's forest sector has had a long-established trade history with our American neighbours, and that has been and continues to be a vital part of our industry's success. ln recent history, much of the relationship has been governed by a managed trade deal, the softwood lumber agreement.
In short, we believe the current softwood lumber agreement is a one-sided capitulation to narrow American interests. The United Steelworkers would encourage the federal government to fully defend our industry, and engage with our allies both in the U.S. and Canada that support free and fair reciprocal trade.
Ownership in the Canadian forest industry today is more diverse than ever with more foreign ownership of forest assets in Canada, and likewise, many Canadian companies have expanded their presence in the United States, primarily through acquisition.
While companies have the ability to mitigate exposure to the softwood lumber agreement by investing in operations on both sides of the border, Canadian forest workers don't have that luxury.
While our union does not support the current softwood lumber agreement, we do believe any export taxes collected by government should be invested in research and innovation to expand both the products we produce and the markets that we serve.
Speaking of those new markets—a common theme—overseas construction markets, like domestic markets, must also respond to the demand for growing housing density. Generally that translates to taller, multi-home, multi-storey structures. If we are not poised to expand the use of wood in the construction of multi-storey buildings in Canada and North America, how can we convince overseas markets to do so?
Federal and provincial governments must lead by example. Ensuring that capital construction of public buildings utilize a wood-first policy is key to demonstrating to foreign customers that we believe in our industry and its potential. We must also profile the innovation in our engineered products and their expanded capacity. From structural beams to cross-laminated timber, they are not only a more green choice both in footprint and carbon storage, but they also offer endless possibilities for design and construction.
An issue we often raise, particularly on the west coast of the country, is that of raw logs. As a result of deregulation and partly in response to the softwood lumber agreement and the growing demand from China, the export of raw logs from British Columbia has increased by some 300% in the last five years, accounting for about 95% of Canada's exports of raw logs. That's enough fibre to supply 10 medium-sized mills and employ an additional 5,000 workers. That's opportunity lost in British Columbia for our Canadian workforce.
Our union is opposed to the export of raw logs and considers it a sell-off of potential Canadian jobs. While most of this wood is, in fact, exported from private land and provincially regulated crown land, there is volume exported from federally regulated lands as well. The United Steelworkers have long called for an export tax on raw logs that would incorporate the difference between the export price and the domestic price. The export of raw logs simply is an affront to the social contract on which the forest industry was built in this country. We believe, as do most Canadians, that access to our timber must generate jobs for British Columbians, for Canadians.
Briefly on capital investment, as the second and third growth forests regenerate for harvest, for which we are thankful, older mills need new technologies. Frankly, the long-term viability of these operations narrows every day as the cost of refits grow. We need to encourage and facilitate investments in our industry. That's a vital role federal policy can make.
With respect to people, whether the industry exists as it does today or shifts to a more innovative, higher-value sector, we know we need skilled workers. While the committee did not specifically ask about job training, we thought we would be remiss if we did not mention it briefly. Today the responsibility for training rests with all of us, but frankly, few of us take advantage of the opportunities. We work with some employers who embrace the responsibility and are creating apprenticeships and investing in the workforce, yet others at the opposite pole are unwilling to invest. Skills training seems to generate a patchwork of responses from employers and all levels of government. We continue to call for expanded Red Seal apprentice training and welcome an opportunity to discuss this with the committee further.
Speaking of working together, there are cynics out there, who we fight every day, who still consider the forest industry as a sunset industry. The United Steelworkers does not. It is our collective self-interest to ensure we are all working together to build a more resilient, more sustainable, more productive, and more profitable forest sector. That requires that we all work together: provincial and federal governments, industry, unions, aboriginal groups, and even our customers. We all have an awful lot at stake here. Yet unfortunately, there is little happening at the national level to bring everybody together to share best practices to maximize our impact on the markets. To achieve this, United Steelworkers supports the reformation of the national forestry council as a place where stakeholders can regularly meet and discuss with whom we build our industry and how we do that into the future.
I'd be happy to answer any questions.