Natural Resources Committee on March 9th, 2020

[Bernard Généreux, Conservative, Montmagny—L'Islet—Kamouraska—Rivière-du-Loup, QC]

Mr. Chair, first of all, I would like to correct my Bloc Québécois colleague. He said that the investments made in the oil sands over the past 60 years have not benefited Quebec. That is an incredible falsehood. Investments in the oil sands have benefited Quebec, just as they have benefited Canada, of course.

I thank the witnesses for being here.

A few weeks ago, I held a meeting with people from the lumber industry in my riding of Montmagny-L'Islet-Kamouraska-Rivière-du-Loup. In the Saint-Pamphile region, which is south of my riding and close to the U.S. border, the vast majority of mills use American wood. In fact, they buy American wood in American dollars and have to pay a 20% tax. With the current exchange rate, they are therefore taxed twice as much on their exports.

Is there any negotiation between Americans and Canadians on the taxes the Americans have put in place? I know this issue has been brought before the courts, but despite that, are there negotiations taking place?

Another product made in this region is cedar shingles that are put on the walls or roofs of houses. Currently, this product is taxed, and it was not taxed under the old regime. Once again, we are affected by these new taxes.

Are there negotiations to eliminate these taxes? That is my first question.

[Beth MacNeil]

To respond to this question, I will have to defer to my Global Affairs Canada colleague who will appear at this committee on Wednesday afternoon to address what we're currently doing. We are taking action on all exports, including the status of cedar shakes and shingles.

[Bernard Généreux, Conservative, Montmagny—L'Islet—Kamouraska—Rivière-du-Loup, QC]

All right.

I have one more question for you. Two billion trees, that's a beautiful picture. As I understand it, we already plant two billion trees a year in Canada. Did I understand correctly or am I mistaken?

Is it true or not?

[Beth MacNeil]

Mr. Chair, today, across Canada, 500 million trees are being planted, not 2 billion. That's 25% of the total.

[Bernard Généreux, Conservative, Montmagny—L'Islet—Kamouraska—Rivière-du-Loup, QC]

All right.

Is the Liberal government's promise to plant two billion trees a year or over several years?

[Beth MacNeil]

It would be over 10 years.

[Bernard Généreux, Conservative, Montmagny—L'Islet—Kamouraska—Rivière-du-Loup, QC]

It would be 10 years, so we will plant less than we are already planting now. Is that true?

[Beth MacNeil]

Mr. Chair, c'est une augmentation to what we're planting now.

[Bernard Généreux, Conservative, Montmagny—L'Islet—Kamouraska—Rivière-du-Loup, QC]

It's 200 million over and above the 500 million that are already planted every year. Where are they getting planted, and how much is it going to cost? I'd like to have some in my riding.

[Beth MacNeil]

From our analysis, we know that this would cover a landmass, as I mentioned, twice the size of Prince Edward Island. We have done estimates on what it would cost if we planted the small seedlings. It is in the order of billions of dollars. The announcement in the platform commitment did note that it would be cost-shared. We will be looking—

[Bernard Généreux, Conservative, Montmagny—L'Islet—Kamouraska—Rivière-du-Loup, QC]

With whom?

[Beth MacNeil]

—at planting right across Canada.

[Bernard Généreux, Conservative, Montmagny—L'Islet—Kamouraska—Rivière-du-Loup, QC]

Shared with whom?

[Beth MacNeil]

I'm meeting every week with stakeholders in my office. Top-tier partners are those partners that manage the forests—the provinces and the territories. There are other organizations, such as Tree Canada, to name one, and Nature Canada and others that are qualified. We're looking at organizations that have a proven track record to purchase the seedlings, to get the right stock for the ecozones, plant successfully and monitor.

[Bernard Généreux, Conservative, Montmagny—L'Islet—Kamouraska—Rivière-du-Loup, QC]

If I understand correctly, this will be done with the Government of Quebec and, potentially, with regional governments. In Quebec, there are Regional County Municipalities, or RCMs, cooperatives, and all sorts of private organizations.

Can all these organizations participate in planting these trees?

[Beth MacNeil]

Yes, we will be working with provincial governments and the Federation of Canadian Municipalities and others.

[Bernard Généreux, Conservative, Montmagny—L'Islet—Kamouraska—Rivière-du-Loup, QC]

Thank you.

[The Chair, Liberal, James Maloney]

Thank you very much. That's it.

Mr. Lefebvre.

[Paul Lefebvre, Liberal, Sudbury, ON]

Thank you, Mr. Chair.

Before we begin, I want to thank the witnesses for being with us.

I'm very happy, too, to talk about forests. Although I am the member for Sudbury, a mining town, I come from Kapuskasing, a pulp and paper and forestry town. My father worked at the Spruce Falls mill for 40 years as a welder. My grandfather helped build the mill in the 1920s and 1930s. For a long time we exported our paper to be used in the daily newspaper The New York Times, which we were very proud of.

My whole family worked in forestry. I'm very happy to talk about it. I am a forest man. I was able to benefit from the good jobs it created. Unlike my father, I was able to go to university, thanks to the good jobs in the industry.

Mr. Simard talked about investments, and I'd like to get back to that. From his point of view, it is a lack of investment. Ms. MacNeil, you talked about the investments our government has made in the forestry sector over the last four years. There is the softwood lumber action plan. We are talking about $900 million, $250 million in investments in the 2019 federal budget and another $100 million in 2018. This means that about $1.2 billion has been invested in the sector, which is a lot.

We recognize, however, that there are difficulties. That is clear.

You mentioned that we are now at a crossroads, which has implications for the sector in terms of the potential for bioproducts and the bioeconomy, and the role they could play.

I've seen that with my own eyes. When I went to Chibougamau and Chapais in Quebec, I saw the investments there and how that has transformed.... But we're also seeing all of this potential out there in this billion-dollar economy that is waiting to... and we're seeing that the transition is hard to do.

Maybe, with your expertise and what you hear.... The challenge is with the adoption. FPInnovations is doing amazing work. There's a ton of research going on, and we are world leaders in Canada.

As to the adoption of that in our commercial world, what are the impediments that we could look at in public policy as we prepare our report to Parliament? What can we recommend to Parliament?

[Beth MacNeil]

When I speak with my colleagues in British Columbia at the provincial level, I hear that there is enough forest fibre within the forest. About two-thirds of that fibre has traditionally gone to the traditional saw log industry. Federally, we have to continue to support those small, medium and large mills to purchase the equipment—it might be first-in-kind in Canada—and perhaps have pilot plants to see if we can transition, by using the residue, to higher-value bioproducts.

As for public policy, as we know, the management of forests is under provincial and territorial jurisdiction. B.C. is taking strides and many steps right now to encourage that transition with changes in legislation at the provincial level to support the transition of the bioeconomy.

[Paul Lefebvre, Liberal, Sudbury, ON]

Thank you.

I know my colleague Mr. Weiler talked about indigenous participation in this sector. Its importance is growing.

Mr. Waring, you mentioned the new investments made by our government in the last mandate and how those have changed and benefited many communities. Indeed, last week I had the honour of making an announcement with the KOKI corporation up in the Aroland area and with Marten Falls, as well as Eabametoong. Those are three first nations that have benefited from this program—and we see that across the country.

You said there were about 50 communities that were able.... You threw out some numbers that were pretty impressive. How do we continue down that road?

Can you explain to us the benefits of that program?

[Jeff Waring]

Mr. Chair, we've signed just over 60 contribution agreements with a number of different communities under the recent indigenous forestry initiative.

Again, a lot of the benefits we're realizing through these contribution agreements are around the training of community members to best position them to be able to take those important jobs within the forest sector.

We're also working with those indigenous communities to ensure that they have the right skills to be able to negotiate new value-chain opportunities with other key members in the forest sector, as well as with the provincial governments, when they're discussing opportunities around managing forests within their communities.

[The Chair, Liberal, James Maloney]

Thank you. I'm going to have to stop you there. I'm sorry.

[Mario Simard, Bloc, Jonquière, QC]

Do I have time for a quick question?

[The Chair, Liberal, James Maloney]

Ms. McLeod.