Thank you for the question.
I would have to say that innovation in the sector doesn't directly satisfy what our leadership is looking for. I made the comment in my report that of recent days and years, we've seen innovation mostly to be finding new markets internationally. That success obviously supports our success as well because of our eagerness to participate in the sector. We need a healthy, robust market for the success of any of our new and expanding first nations forestry companies.
The innovation that I focus on, that I'm looking for, is how to reinvent the manufacturing sector. I differentiate value added as the primary breakdown, such as manufacturing for sawlogs, and then the other value added, where we're doing more than just that primary. There's a tremendous opportunity for first nations to contribute to that and be part of that economy as partners, as true partners and business co-owners. We're trying to find ways to get into that.
If we can, I think the other innovation is that we actually complement the global marketing access by having the indigenous peoples as partners. As true partners in the sector, we can globally market that value added or access to new markets, that kind of thing.
So there's definitely the innovation need, the new technology; we have to do more. I'd go all the way back to our leadership goals and values around stewardship. They suggest that we'd want to see less timber harvesting on the land base and more non-timber values protected, because we have those as community values, and they're of much higher value to these other resources, although not financial. Therefore, we absolutely want to see added value with reduced timber utilized.
We have been involved and have tried to engage in value-added opportunities, in building that into rural B.C. and our communities, and in finding a way, but it's very challenging to do that.