That's a great question, because we are always asked about what people can do.
There are two elements to that. One is the education of people who are capable of designing and specifying wood. The other is their legal ability to use it in certain structures. The legal aspect is basically in the codes and the standards and the like.
I don't know that there is a really good understanding by a lot of people of what the new wood products can do. You've probably heard of Brock Commons. Who would have thought 15 years ago that we'd have an 18-storey building the main structural element of which would be wood? Many of those materials are still restricted in various jurisdictions, some by the national building code but often by locals, because people look at them and say, “Wood, fire, burn, bad”. The real question should be how the material will respond in a fire, not whether it will eventually burn. I can make steel wool burn, but it's acceptable.
That's one area where I think CWC has done an awful lot of work in helping people understand what's possible and where not to use wood. Don't allow it to be used where it shouldn't be used, but don't diminish its capability because you have a weird perception of it.
The other thing is how the architects and engineers learn about this. Very few architects 15 or 20 years ago took any courses. At the university I went to, UBC, the engineers have an optional course in wood, heavy timber design, and it's 12 hours long, out of four years of instruction. To be honest, they probably shouldn't use wood, but that needs to change. Laval University has a wonderful program. The University of Northern B.C. has a master's program. UVic wants to build a wood engineering program. These universities are recognizing that wood is going to play a role, but we really do need to teach today's practitioners as well so that they are comfortable in building with wood.
I really think there should be a requirement to learn about all the main structural materials if we're really going to be comprehensive engineers and architects. Does that answer the question?