I have to acknowledge at the beginning that my work was commissioned by a provincial government. It is very much focused on matters within the jurisdiction of the provincial government. The other limitation is that I was not asked to look at forestry policy writ large, but specifically at forestry practices. Even within a provincial scope, my focus was somewhat limited.
A couple of comments come to mind. One of the issues I really stressed in my report was the need for research that was actively commissioned by governments in partnership with industry, if that seemed appropriate. There would be research on the impact of different forestry practices that was specific to forestry conditions in Nova Scotia. There would also be research programs on the alternative to existing forestry practices, to close the gap we currently have—at least in Nova Scotia—between the forestry practices that are perceived to be more cost-effective, more intensive forestry, and the practices that might be considered partial or selective or alternatives to intensive forestry, including clear-cutting, that aren't seen to be viable from an operational and profitability point of view. At least in Nova Scotia, my recommendation to the government is not to deny the existence of this gap, but to actively try to close it, to do more experimentation in different forestry types.
I have two other comments really quickly. In every province in the country, the conservation end of the spectrum is not solely provincial conservation. National parks play a hugely important role in all provinces. They certainly do in Nova Scotia.
The last thing I would comment on—and this is where I stopped when the chairman said to stop—is the concept of resiliency. In an age of increasing climate change, we need resilient forests that can have a better chance of survival in all the various threats that forests face that are accentuated by climate change. Again, I think that's an area of interest, but it also should be of interest to the federal government generally, about how well prepared our forests are across the country to withstand the stresses they are coming under relative to climate change.