Thank you, Mr. Chair.
Good afternoon and thank you for the opportunity to be here.
This is a topic extremely dear to my heart. My name is Catherine Cobden. I come by my interest in this topic quite honestly. I was born and raised in the shadow of a pulp mill in Espanola, Ontario, very close to Sudbury. I became a chemical engineer and spent many years in various communities right across our country that are 100% dependent on the forest industry. To say I'm passionate would be an understatement.
Prior to my current role, I was the executive vice-president of the Forest Products Association of Canada. I led a number of studies that investigated the way to create new secondary products and supply chains for the industry, which are very germane to the topic at hand.
Now I am president of Cobden Strategies Inc., a boutique consulting firm. In that capacity, I am pleased to work with innovative forest products companies and many other companies in other industries, like steel, that are interested in pursuing the opportunity that incorporating forest fibre-based materials presents for their businesses.
I actually see strong developments across the country in this space, from iconic tall wood buildings, which we have been talking about, to novel products like nanocrystalline cellulose, through to these manufacturing companies, in a wide array. I see steel and cement coming together with forestry as we try to reduce something that's critically important in Canada, which is our carbon footprint. The list goes on and on. This is an extremely timely topic.
The creation of secondary products is an exciting economic story that has already begun. It's creating jobs in both rural and urban Canada, but it's also an environmental story and it's very exciting. We know that wood stores carbon—we have just had a great description of that from my colleague Peter—so you know there's a direct link between the low-carbon green economy that Canada aspires to and what we call the forest bioeconomy.
It is with this in mind that I am pleased to be here today. I worked hard to try to think of some offerings I could give this committee, as it studies this topic, about the current industry and the development of those secondary supply chains.
First and foremost—and this goes almost without saying but let's put it on the record—sustainable use of forest resources must be paramount to ensure healthy and vibrant forests for generations to come. The sustainability of our forests, as we pursue these secondary supply chains, must be central to how we proceed. Our policies, regulations, forest-management practices, certification schemes, and so on must all keep pace to assure that we have that secure, predictable, and sustainable supply of forest material in the future.
Second, there are primary products. I've been asked to talk about my own definition of primary. I see primary products as being the traditional products of various wood products, lumber, and pulp and paper products. I see them being linked to each other in an extremely integrated economic model. This committee is probably very aware of that. When there's a problem in one part of the family, it impacts everybody. I believe, given some of the long-term structural challenges in pulp and paper, that we have an ongoing economic imperative to create these secondary supply chains that you're looking into.
Third, secondary products are already being created today. We're talking about some novel engineered wood products. I didn't bring any toys, but they're awesome. They're fantastic. We're talking as well about energy-generation capacity. I presume my colleague Sandy will talk about that in a bit more detail as well. Of course, right across this country, we're seeing biochemical biomaterial trials for the first time ever in the world, which is extremely exciting.
Fourth, none of us in this room and none of us who look at this issue deeply actually know how this will unfold in the future. I think we need to stay cognizant of the fact that the secondary products of today may become the primary products of tomorrow. Also, there may be brand new inputs that forest-based materials provide for these other sectors. We might even see entirely new segments of our bioeconomy emerge.
Fifth, the primary production of traditional products is currently the most economic and job-rich way for this to unfold, so while we don't know how this will actually take place, we do know a few things.
Bio-pathways looked at this and I believe the current analysis shows that you're best to take clean technology and bolt it on to some of these assets, or take residuals from existing primary forest product producers and convert that to additional bioproducts.
Finally, there are a lot of new entrants out there, a lot of new businesses that are extremely interested, and I think new market opportunities will emerge that will be quite significant. My advice is that primary product producers need to recognize and be encouraged to form these new business relationships to actually grab hold of those market potentials.
You're taking on this study at a time as well—and I'm sure you're well aware—when international competition is looking at this in all sorts of ways. We must be seized with the question of how we do this here in Canada.
While I have the floor, I'd like to applaud the Canadian Council of Forest Ministers for their recent launch of a bioeconomy framework. As you likely know, it provides a tool box for federal and provincial governments to think about how best to support the primary forest users and create those secondary supply chains that you're looking at. It got a lot of things right so I encourage you to take a look at it, but I'd love to ask you to go one step further.
I think we can do more. I would like to suggest we could take a leadership role and develop immediately a federal strategy that puts those elements of the framework into action that would support the provincial activities in this space, that would provide critical information, to all current and potential users of the resource, of feedstock supply, of what the inventory of clean technologies that are moving dynamically is, and really drive further innovation.
Globally, this is a very fast-moving space. I think we have to keep our eye on all of this. We have an enormous economic job and environmental opportunity that you're studying. We have a very strong base. We have 350 million hectares of beautiful forest that we know how to manage sustainably. We have a strong global reputation for those sustainable practices. Our development of “world first” clean technologies cannot be overlooked. I think if we marry these strengths with ongoing innovation and look deeply at how we can go further, Canada will be very well positioned to be a leader.
Thank you very much for taking on this study and for the chance to appear.