Thank you very much, and good morning or good afternoon, as appropriate.
I am very pleased to be speaking to the committee from the traditional territory of the Lheidli T'enneh.
I'm currently the acting vice-president for research at the University of Northern British Columbia. Prior to that I was chair of the forestry program. I'm also a professional forester with a background in forest health.
The forest bioeconomy provides significant opportunities for growth and transformation of the forestry sector. This transformation, however, requires Canada to become much less dependent on solid wood products and pulp, less susceptible to highly variable commodity markets, more invested in a diversity of wood and forest products and highly committed to the mitigation of climate change.
The first opportunity I will mention is the enhanced utilization of harvested trees. The forest sector has already made great strides in the development of composite wood products, cross-laminated timbers and bioproducts such as chemicals. We've also seen a tremendous increase in biomass-based energy systems such as wood pellets and wood gasification. These have the potential to greatly enhance the revenue generated from every harvested tree and reduce greenhouse gas emissions by using mill waste instead of fossil fuels. Just as an example, at UNBC we've been able to reduce our greenhouse gas emissions by 66% using these systems.
One of the limiting factors in expanding the development and production of these innovative products and energy systems is that much of the wood supply is near rural communities that lack the infrastructure to support significant business development and that have suffered economic downturns due to dependence on a single industry. While capital investments have been made federally to support technology and product development all the way through to commercialization, the connection to economic diversification and development in rural communities is lacking. This requires enhanced community control over forest resources, which is a provincial jurisdiction, to ensure both environmental and community sustainability, but it also means place-based community development research, entrepreneurship support and capital investment to support local small- to medium-scale businesses.
Similarly, investments in wood product development have produced very exciting innovations in engineered wood products made from smaller bits of wood. These products have been shown to have superior seismic performance and are much more carbon-friendly than steel and concrete. One of the limitations in integrating these products into the construction industry is the lack of training programs for architects, engineers and especially the construction workers who are able to work with these engineered wood products.
A second opportunity for the forestry sector is through forest ecosystem diversification driven by forest product diversity. Canadian forests have experienced unprecedented natural disturbances caused by wildfires and pests, due in part to climate change. Severe impacts from these disturbances have been directly linked to the lack of forest diversity. The forest industry, despite the innovations mentioned previously, remains largely dominated by dimension lumber and pulp, which require a narrow suite of conifer species. This industrial model was established at a time when timber supply was seemingly unlimited, and as a whole it has not kept up with changing market conditions, shrinking forested land base and uncertainties due to factors such as climate change and global trade. The reliance on softwood lumber has resulted in a homogenization of species and age-class structures in forests, which makes them much more susceptible to damage by fire and pests.
We can change forest management practices to enhance diversity—for example, by allowing non-commercial species as part of the composition in forests—but without changes to the industrial model, which is fed by these commercial species, this just exacerbates our growing timber supply problems. Therefore, we need more investment in development and marketing of a wide range of forest products that use multiple species to create an economic demand for diverse products and therefore diverse forests.
Finally, the third opportunity for the forest sector is through its role in mitigating climate change. I believe the committee has already heard from Dr. Werner Kurz, who has found that depending on what happens to timber growing stocks, our forests could become carbon sources or carbon sinks. It's becoming increasingly important to look to our forests to enhance carbon sequestration as a means of mitigating climate change. Recent research from B.C. has shown that when the economic price of carbon emissions and sinks is combined with timber prices, traditional clear-cuts flip from being the most economical to the least economical harvest practices. As we work towards meeting our Paris Agreement targets, the benefits of promoting the retention of intact forests, as well as wider adoption of partial harvesting practices, must be more fully considered.
In summary, I believe that the transformation of the forest sector will require a better connection between agencies responsible for economic development and those responsible for natural resources, greater investment in diverse forest products to create a demand for diverse forests, and an enhanced role for the forest sector in climate change mitigation through adaptation of forest management practices that are driven by carbon accounting as well as timber pricing.
Thank you very much for this opportunity to speak to the committee.