Thanks for being here this morning.
Of the 347 million hectares of forest in Canada, about 5% is affected by insects, less than half a per cent by fire, and even less than that by harvest. This report is quite clear. I travel to British Columbia every year. I drive for 10 hours to Kelowna and Penticton from Edmonton. I see the problems—the mountain pine beetle and the effect on forestry—at all levels.
I have a report here from Natural Resources Canada, which came from the Library of Parliament. It's showing that forest areas affected by the MPB in Canada in 2005-2015 went from a little above eight million hectares down to below two million hectares in 2015.
Can you help me understand this chart? If I am to look at it and try to understand why the effect per hectare is going down significantly within 10 years, I would look into two areas: Either we're doing a good job in dealing with the problem, or there's migration from area to area—maybe from western Canada toward eastern Canada. That definitely presents a bigger problem.
Do you have that report? Do you believe in this observation? How can we understand it better? Having you as an expert, especially from the indigenous community.... My belief has always been that if anyone can understand our nature well, our land and landscape, it would be the indigenous community.