Thank you very much.
Good afternoon, Mr. Chair and committee members.
As noted already, my name is Kathy Abusow, and I'm president and CEO of the Sustainable Forestry Initiative. On behalf of SFI, I'm pleased to be here with you today.
For those who don't know, we're a non-profit that advances sustainability through forest-focused collaboration. Collaboration is part of our mission and is essential for this sector's economic recovery. I'll return to this theme later in my remarks.
We're a global leader in setting standards in conservation, collaboration, community engagement and environmental education with the forest sector, the conservation sector, resource professionals, local communities, indigenous peoples and government. We do so to solve national and global sustainability challenges, including climate change and species recovery, while growing opportunities to employ youth, improve indigenous relations and be part of a circular economy with products sourced from renewable and sustainably managed forests across Canada.
I'm going to speak to you a little bit about green jobs, the two billion trees and collaboration as part of the forest sector's economic recovery.
Project Learning Tree Canada is an initiative of SFI, and we've placed over 3,500 youth in green jobs in the forest conservation sector since 2018. In so doing, we've achieved gender balance and provided work experiences for over 500 indigenous youth across 80 indigenous communities. We have also engaged 200 forest sector companies in the SFI forest network and the Canadian Parks Council network.
Up until the fall economic statement was announced, we were very concerned that our program and other job creation programs—which have been growing in relevance and reach in supporting skills development and work experiences to grow a diverse and resilient workforce in the forest sector—would come to an end due to lack of funding for the youth employment and skills strategy. Therefore, I'd like to really congratulate the hard-working public servants from various departments who crafted the fall economic statement. We know that in order for the forest sector to recover, its workforce needs to be resilient and diverse, and this funding really helps. The additional $575 million for the youth employment and skills strategy will go a long way in supporting all youth in finding high-quality innovative jobs in the forest sector and providing it with the diverse and resilient workforce that is needed for the future.
The forest sector is part of the renewable and circular bioeconomy. There is a growing field of opportunities and career opportunities for youth and the next generation in this sector, and we are focused on collaborating to find the career pathways, the educational pathways, the skills development and the work experiences to support that.
In terms of the two billion trees, I want to speak to the role that the two billion trees initiative can play in economic recovery for the forest sector as well. While planting and managing two billion trees will be important to addressing climate change, it also supports job creation and green infrastructure. It's a low-cost solution to many of Canada's significant sustainability challenges.
As the committee will be well aware, healthy forests store carbon, but Canada's forests have been devastated by climate change, including the damaging forest fires and a steep increase in pests and disease, which become a carbon source, not a carbon sink. Therefore, these factors undermine our nation's climate recovery, species recovery and clean water and also damage our ability to have sustainable harvest levels. As a result, they damage our ability to have the sustainable, resilient economy we want.
The two billion trees investment, including the $3.1 billion of funding promised in the fall economic statement, will help restore forests that have been degraded by climate change and keep our forest stock whole. In addition, it creates the opportunity to increase our tree canopy in urban centres and municipalities across Canada. I know that Tree Canada is also on this panel today and will likely speak about the important role that urban trees play. SFI collaborates in sustainably managed forest landscapes and will be playing an even more significant role partnering with organizations, including Tree Canada, in urban forests in the new year.
Finally, I'll speak on the point of collaboration. It's part of our mission. It's critical to the success of economic recovery. I hope that the standing committee recognizes that investments should be made in organizations that are able to collaborate to help sustain our forests and to sustain economic recovery. I hope part of this solution will be looking for track records of success to innovate, to collaborate and to advance all of these important goals that have already been stated: a circular economy, forest products from renewable resources and the ability to address climate change.
Thank you for the opportunity to speak to you today.