Thanks very much, Mr. Chair.
We appreciate the opportunity to be here this morning, or this afternoon, and while much uncertainty remains as to the health and economic crisis and what it holds for Canadians in the months ahead, what is certain from our perspective is that the forest industry, like industry here in British Columbia, like across Canada, is well-positioned to help Canadians get back to work, to lift communities up and to deliver low-carbon products that the world wants.
The pandemic initially forced mill shutdowns, but operators were able to put safe work practices in place to get back up and running much more quickly than consumer-facing industries. Strong demand fuelled by home renovations and rising housing starts also helped, allowing many families to get back up on their feet and demonstrating how our sector's deep roots and resilient supply chain are critical to our collective economic recovery.
As Jason said, B.C.'s forest industry also has a huge economic impact here. It accounts for a third of B.C.'s exports. It's $13 billion in GDP and about $4 billion in taxes annually that fund important health and social services; and in 2019, our companies at COFI purchased $7 billion worth of goods and services from 10,000 suppliers in 340 communities across our province. While many people will think of that as just being rural and remote communities, it will be interesting to know that Vancouver had the highest spend for the forest sector last year. All of this is to say that our industry is going to be the cornerstone of the economy and critical to our economic recovery, whether you are in Prince George, Campbell River, Victoria or Surrey.
However, while we have weathered this crisis in the short term relatively well, we face foundational challenges that predate the pandemic, including rising costs, regulatory complexity, trade volatility and growing global competition. Therefore, as your committee here today considers the important role that our sector can play in our collective economic recovery, we'd urge you to focus on the following five key actions.
First, as Jason said, it's critically important that we invest in and protect our working forest land base. In British Columbia, about 52% of the land base has some form of conservation value on it. That's a huge commitment. It makes B.C. a great place in which to work and it's a model for sustainable development, but in addition to the conservation values, we also value our renewable forest resource for the jobs and opportunities it provides to families and communities.
Secure access to fibre at a reasonable cost is the single biggest factor that can help attract new investment and contribute to economic recovery. That's why we think that, just like parks and protected areas, we should decide on the size of the working forest and then lock it in. Once we've done that, we need to explore innovative ways to manage the forest resource.
We are already an industry leader in forest certification. We're employing new technologies and are ready to roll up our sleeves on the two-billion tree initiative, but managing in a world of climate change is going to require us all to take a fresh look. There are new ideas that need to be explored to improve the health of our forests, our industry, our communities and our country.
Secondly, we want to have good rules that protect our environment, but right now, forestry in B.C. is governed by close to 60 federal and provincial legislative statutes and regulations: layers of complexity that create uncertainty, add costs and impair our ability to compete. We need to increase coordination and eliminate redundancies without jeopardizing environmental protection, and we'd welcome the opportunity to work collaboratively to make changes where it makes sense.
The third critical priority is our partnership with first nations. In B.C. today, we have 5,300 indigenous people who are directly employed in our sector, with many more in business-to-business relationships, joint ventures, forest management, and so on. We're very proud of the relationships established over many years, but we know there's a lot more work to do. As we work towards reconciliation and the implementation of the UN declaration, it's critical that we do this work together to make sure we get it right, to make sure the outcomes are clear, and to make sure that we create the conditions where all can prosper.
Fourthly, as we look to the future, we need to double down on both market and product diversification. Over the last couple of decades, working with the provinces and federal governments, B.C. has led the charge to expand our market, particularly into Asia where we now sell 30% of our products. That reduces our reliance on the U.S., where we continue to face punishing tariffs.
Our partnership with NRCan really can be seen as a gold standard on how to create partnerships and get results. However, developing new markets and products is not a short-term game. It requires years to develop product familiarity, codes, standards and market acceptance. We believe that must continue.
Finally we would say that the time is absolutely right to aggressively build on our reputation as a green leader, a world leader in building with wood. There are incredible examples of low-carbon wood construction across our country. We have people, resources, know-how and the ability to lead the world. We can be the place that the world looks to for the next big idea on how to use the resources that come from the forest in a way that has a lighter climate impact. We need to pursue opportunities to grow demand for our home-grown products, incent the development of mass timber, help builders navigate the building codes and create more awareness about the incredible benefits of building with wood. By doing that, we will also create new kinds of jobs for the next generation of forest workers, which is something I think we're all excited about.
There's a big task ahead for you all. Lifting our economy up after this unprecedented blow will be hard, but the forest industry can and will play a significant role. You can help magnify that positive impact by helping to address some of the fundamental challenges we face, and, importantly, by championing this industry as we work to leverage our low-carbon forest products as a climate-change solution for the world.
Thank you. I look forward to the questions.
