That's correct. Thank you.
As the head of Natural Resources Canada's Canadian Forest Service, it's a privilege to be here today to engage with you on the state of play of Canada's forest sector—the challenges and the opportunities. Thank you for the invitation.
As committee members already know, forests and the forest sector play an important role in our economy, our environment, the well-being of Canadians, and our future.
With a GDP of $25.8 billion, comprising 6% of Canada's exports, and supporting more than 210,000 jobs and 300 rural communities, the forest sector is an important economic driver coast to coast. It is also one of Canada's largest employers of indigenous people, with more than 11,000 employed in the sector. We're also working to improve the recruitment, retention and development of women, a greater number of indigenous people, and new Canadians along the full value chain.
I'd like to share with you key factors influencing the sector across Canada today and why many view the sector to be at a crossroads. Some factors that are having a cumulative impact on the competitiveness of the sector are trade disputes, decreasing forest fibre due to increased disturbances such as wildland fire and pests associated with the changing climate, the desire to conserve spaces and species to protect Canada's biological diversity, infrastructure capacity to get our products to market, and at times, the questioning of Canada's environmental reputation when we are a world leader in the sustainable management of our forests.
Due to one or more of these factors, we have seen both permanent and temporary closures of mills across Canada—in BC, Quebec, New Brunswick, Newfoundland and Labrador and Nova Scotia, affecting thousands of workers along the value chain.
And most recently, we have seen the impacts on the sector from the rail blockades, and we are monitoring potential impacts from the COVID-19 outbreak.
In addition, the sector is dealing with the growing trend toward protectionism, particularly from Canada's largest market, the United States. While Canada successfully resolved one trade dispute with China on dissolving pulp, and two with the U.S. on supercalendered paper and uncoated groundwood paper, U.S. import duties on Canadian softwood lumber remain in place. These tariffs greatly affect the competitiveness of lumber producers, constraining their operations. Due to the integrated nature of the forest sector, the impact of these tariffs trickles down to pulp and paper producers and other users of sawmill residues, like wood chips.
More recently, India launched an investigation on Canadian newsprint, which could result in the imposition of duties. Duties on this product could have a significant impact, as producers are already dealing with a declining market.
As mentioned, the forest sector is at a crossroads. While in some regions of the country, traditional forest sector activities and products may not be possible at the scale they once were, new opportunities exist for Canada to emerge as a world leader in the area of the circular bioeconomy using forestry and forestry-derived products as nature-based solutions to many of the challenges we are facing today. For example, there is no solution to climate change without forests.
Canada's leadership role in the sustainable management of our forests can carry over to being a leader in the transition to a low-carbon economy and the circular bioeconomy. At Natural Resources Canada, we have significant scientific programming, collaborating with provinces and territories in areas such as sustainable forest management; wildland fire; and forest pests, including research on the mountain pine beetle and spruce budworm. We look forward to operationalizing the government's commitment to planting two-billion trees as a means of increasing carbon sequestration and providing other environmental benefits, such as water conservation and wildlife habitat.
We also have industry programming with multiple benefits, including: advancing forest sector competitiveness; supporting indigenous economic development; and advancing nature-based solutions through innovative uses of wood and wood fibre.
We're using our scientific knowledge, industry intelligence, programming and partnerships to support players in the sector to diversify both markets and products and produce higher-value bioproducts. Bioproducts, biochemicals, and bioenergy can replace traditional products and reduce demand for fossil-fuel based and non-renewable materials, such as plastic, cement and steel.
The World Business Council for Sustainable Development estimates the market opportunities for the circular bioeconomy to be worth between $150 billion and $240 billion in 2030. In 2017, the federal-provincial-territorial ministers responsible for forests recognized the importance of Canada's forest to the bioeconomy and endorsed the forest sector bioeconomy framework. Canada can be a global leader in this area. Currently, NRCan is looking to support initiatives using fibre residue to produce 100% compostable bioproducts. These products would be thrown in your compost bin, not your blue box.
I'd like to share with you a few concrete examples of how the Canadian forest sector offers real solutions. We have built great tallwood buildings in recent years, like Brock Commons, an 18-storey new student residence at UBC. This building is not only an engineering and architectural showpiece, but until recently it was the tallest wood building in the world. It is also an environmental game-changer. Constructed in nine and a half weeks, it stores close to 1,600 metric tonnes of carbon dioxide and has saved more than 1,000 metric tonnes in greenhouse gas emissions. This is equal to taking 500 cars off the road for a year.
Another example is the Origine building, a 13-storey wood tower in Quebec City's Pointe-aux-Lievres eco-district, which is the tallest solid wood condominium in North America.
We are supporting remote communities, through our indigenous forestry initiative and off-diesel programs, converting their diesel-based heating systems to biomass. For instance, the Kwadacha Nation in central B.C. is converting mountain pine beetle-killed timber into fuel for a community bioenergy plant. Oujé-Bougoumou Cree Nation in Quebec is renovating its biomass heating system to improve the efficiency and reliability of its district heating system.
While workers, communities and firms are experiencing the most serious of consequences in job loss and mill closures, there is an opportunity for the federal, provincial and territorial governments to work together to transition the sector to be a real player in the circular bioeconomy, supporting workers and making our forest-dependent communities more resilient. The Government of Canada and provincial governments continue to work together with forest sector stakeholders to ensure that support measures for workers, communities and industry are aligned, fully utilized, and that gaps are identified and bridged.
In closing, while the sector faces numerous challenges with significant cumulative effects, the sector also faces numerous opportunities. Canada has the fibre, environmental reputation and the ingenuity to be one of the most competitive forest sectors in the world, and a leader in nature-based solutions and the emerging circular bioeconomy.
