Do I have to start over, or do I continue?
This presentation contains no statistical or economic analyses. It is intended instead to communicate the facts as we experience them in our company.
First, what is Maibec?
Maibec has been in operation for more than 70 years. It is a family company, owned by the Tardif family. In 2012, the Fonds de solidarité des travailleurs du Québec joined our company as a minority shareholder.
The company's name, a contraction of the names Maine and Quebec, is significant. In the beginning, the company acquired its logs in the forests of Maine—as we still do—and processed them in Quebec into construction materials to be sold in North America.
Because of our plants, which are located along the Canada-USA border in the Chaudière-Appalaches region of Quebec, in Maine and in New Brunswick, and because of our more than thirty-year experience in producing solid wood siding and white cedar shingles that are pre-stained in our plants, Maibec today is the largest manufacturer of natural and pre-stained white cedar shingles in North America, producing the equivalent of the siding needed for about 6,000 houses per year.
Maibec is the largest manufacturer of factory pre-stained wood siding in eastern North America. We produce enough siding for approximately 10,000 houses per year. We produce the equivalent of more than 250 million board feet, bd ft, of softwood lumber. This is the amount needed to build 17,000 houses per year.
Finally, Maibec is the largest manufacturer of cedar mulch used in Canadian horticulture. We produced more than 9 million bags in 2017.
In total, Maibec employs about 1,000 people in Canada and the United States.
As you will have gathered, Maibec is active in primary and secondary wood processing; we are studying the possibility of starting tertiary processing very shortly, in the form of complete construction systems.
In order to make sure that a secondary processing industry can be developed in Canada, the primary processing industry has to be kept competitive and profitable around the world. Here are the main challenges that our company will have to face in that regard.
First, there must continue to be an available supply of quality roundwood at an affordable price. The Government of Canada could help us by supporting areas such as research in forestry genomics, and FPInnovations could contribute in terms of research.
The second challenge is the availability of well-trained labour in rural areas. The government could help us by supporting training and automation programs, and by encouraging francophone immigration.
The third challenge is about free market access. Of course, the government must negotiate an acceptable and viable agreement on lumber so that Quebec's border sawmills, including Maibec's, can maintain their product's excluded status, as in the last four disputes.
The final challenge is about the market for by-products.