Good afternoon, Mr. Chair and committee members. Thank you for the opportunity to speak to the Standing Committee on Natural Resources today.
My name is George Ross. I'm deputy minister of energy, mines, and resources for the Yukon territorial government. The mandate of my department, Energy, Mines, and Resources, includes the sustainable development of Yukon's renewable resources, so we are keen to discuss the current state of forestry in the Yukon and the future potential for this sector as part of Canada's forest industry.
I think it's fair to say the forest industry in the Yukon is in its early stages of development. Our Forest Resources Act has only been in place since 2011. There are a few small-scale mills and harvesting for home heating, but we feel forestry has a much greater potential to provide employment, sources of energy, and other value-added products for the benefit of all Yukoners.
Only yesterday the Government of Yukon announced a draft bioenergy strategy to the public. This strategy could lead to greater use of Yukon's substantial forest resources to generate heat from wood chips and pellets. This will be a companion piece to a series of incentive programs that the Yukon government implements to encourage institutional and residential biomass heating systems.
In terms of sustainability, it's worth noting that Yukon's current timber harvest levels are well below what they could be. There is certainly potential for growth in Yukon's forest industry.
To give you a more detailed look at the state of the Yukon's forests and forest industry, I'd like to introduce the director of Yukon's forest management branch, Lyle Dinn, to take the presentation from here.