Thank you very much for the invitation to contribute to your hearings regarding the secondary supply chain products in the forest sector in Canada. It is my pleasure to speak to you today on behalf of the BC First Nations Forestry Council. We are a non-profit society here in B.C. supporting 203 first nations communities—approximately 200,000 first nations citizens—in this part of the country.
We also understand your interest to consider more specifically the employment and economic impacts, the environmental aspects of these industries, and the development of energy-efficient technologies. You will hear aspects of all three themes in our presentation to you today.
Our first reaction to this important work is that it is extremely timely, and we are keen to see participation by first nations. The forest sector is moving through tremendous transition, as you know, and we feel that recent efforts towards revitalization and innovation have missed the mark. Instead of innovation, we seem to be on a continued path of liquidating timber resources for primary manufacturing only, and in some cases, in the west here, we are now even seeing a move backwards, towards increased export of raw logs.
With regard to employment and economic impacts, we wish to express to you that the opportunity of aboriginal participation in the forest sector is an urgent opportunity. We are very aware of the changing demographic for the existing forest sector. As you are aware, hopefully, there is a significant aboriginal youth demographic in our communities. Utilizing and maximizing aboriginal people in the forest sector represents a great opportunity to access local labour resources, to bridge socio-economic challenges in first nations communities, and to build political and corporate relationships, including cultural awareness. Tremendous benefits can be gained, now and in the future, from such strategies being implemented by Canada, regional governments, and forest sector partners.
In our efforts to collaborate and work with B.C. and Canada on transitions in the forest sector, including adapting to climate change conditions, we've maintained that the value-added sector or secondary manufacturing is required. Raw resource extraction and primary manufacturing will not provide enough employment and benefit to Canada as the change in the sector unfolds; secondary and value-added manufacturing are going to be required.
First nations communities were very active in prioritizing the mitigation of the mountain pine beetle epidemic that began 15 years ago in B.C. One of the top three priority goals was participation in the new bioenergy or other bioeconomy business that would utilize the dead pine trees. Bioenergy became a buzzword for B.C. and a mitigation strategy for the pine beetle infestation. Although there were some pellet plants and multiple bioenergy proposals and pilots, the full implementation and utilization are yet to be developed.
One area of focus we looked into was bioenergy solutions for the replacement of diesel-generated power. An obvious business model exists to convert over 65 first nations communities in British Columbia from diesel generators to bioenergy plants. However, jurisdictional power supply issues and policies have challenged this type of investment.
An important part of the transition we are facing in the west is that the mid-term and long-term supply of timber resources is diminishing. As a result of well-known long-term timber supply analysis and recent shorter-term climate change impacts, we've known for some time that we must learn to do more with less. The annual harvest levels in British Columbia are expected to drop from 75 million to 55 million cubic metres per year, and we will have significant challenges in that transition as a result of climate change impacts, the pine beetle, and wildfires.
Unfortunately, from our perspective we see an economic and corporate tragedy unfolding in the common situation. Various forest sector components are fighting to hold on to previous economic opportunities and continue to seek increased revenue and new markets for the same primary supply chain products, seeking reduced costs of production, although it is well known that we are at the most expensive part of the timber harvesting cycle in the west as we move from old-growth to second-growth stands.
When it comes to piloting new value-added products or manufacturing, we wish to raise to your attention that we have seen examples of new business being granted support for pilot projects with inadequate environmental standards to ensure health and safety in communities. We are very aware of the opportunities; however, we wish to raise the concern that rigorous environmental frameworks need to be in place for the protection of the environment and communities. Although we believe in and support the development of a value-added forest sector and the development of new and innovative forest products, we wish to emphasize this point.
We can't move too quickly into this space without ensuring.... In our case, as first nations, working towards having our title and rights recognized is important at the local community level. We wish to remind the committee that the rights and title of first nations people are at the forefront of natural resource management decisions and projects in Canada, and that first nations should be priority partners and decision-makers in the process of considering investment in secondary supply chain products.
First nations communities are largely in poverty and continue to have to fight for the recognition of their title and rights, including recognition of pre-existing title rights. With this in mind, I bring to the committee's attention the Supreme Court of Canada decision on the Tsilhqot'in in 2014. This most recent decision has been discussed as a game-changer, in that it has brought clear definition of title as it relates to first nations lands. How it relates to first nations lands is clearly important to a renewed forest sector and the balance between investment in some of these new manufacturing regimes and with first nations.
In addition, the Truth and Reconciliation Commission has recently completed its work and published its calls to action, providing guidance for all in terms of implementing reconciliation. The committee should also be reminded that Canada is now implementing the United Nations Declaration on the Rights of Indigenous Peoples.
These high-level mandates towards reconciliation and your committee's work towards innovation in the forest sector represent tremendous advancement potential for previous federal commitments towards reconciliation, policy transformation, and meaningful transformation of the relationship with Canada's aboriginal peoples. However, after 10 years of commitments to this high-level engagement and participation, and clearly good intentions being described on paper, we are suffering a shortfall on the realization of these goals. We suffer the same risk of all talk and no investment for aboriginal engagement and participation going forward.
As we have previously described, a renewed manufacturing sector or a stimulated value-added sector is almost out of reach for first nations communities due to lack of access to capital and jurisdictional or policy barriers. For those of us who wish to see a renewed forest sector for Canada—and we are certainly part of this group—a forest sector that is inclusive and respectful of aboriginal peoples in Canada is imperative. Strong relationships with first nations can lead to globally certified wood products or other value-added products that make our sector stronger. We want to emphasize the interest in partnership in moving forward in this type of work.
First nations are eager to be part of a new forest sector. It requires investment in these communities for stewardship and planning; operational and management support; targeted workforce programs; access to capital for local investment in the new manufacturing and value-added facilities, including bioenergy; and of course a policy framework that will accommodate this work.
Let's move past denying the title and rights that aboriginal peoples hold, and past the shallow commitments that look nice in reports but have inadequate scale when financial resources are called for. We feel that a strong and healthy relationship with our communities will bring prosperity for all in a renewed forest sector for Canada, so I wanted to share those priority mandates of our organization, our chiefs and leaders in the west, in support of your committee's work moving forward.
Thank you very much.