Thank you, Mr. Chair.
First of all, I'd like to thank you for inviting us to appear before the committee, and I also want to assure you that we'll work together as closely as possible.
In looking forward to this presentation, I took a look back at some old notes, and I'll start off by saying that governments really do matter.
I refer back to a 1982 presentation by Environment Canada, “A Framework for Forest Renewal”; a 1984 presentation by the federal New Democratic Party, “Program for Fair Recovery: Job Security in the Forestry Industry”; and a 1983 study presentation by Frank Oberle, who was a member of Parliament at that time in the riding currently represented by Bob Zimmer.
All of that led, in 1990, to the formation of a ministry of forestry, the first one and only one, which was headed by Frank Oberle. In 1991, through a direct government grant, Tree Canada was formed as a 100%-funded government organization.
You should be thanked and everyone should acknowledge that your starting this in 1991 has led to a Tree Canada that has planted over 82 million trees in 700 communities across Canada, a lot of them represented by you. To note, we have morphed from a fully funded government organization to a fully privately funded organization.
We're extremely proud of this and I can only add that planting trees—and we've planted a lot of them—is a good thing for people, it's a good thing for the economy and it's the best bang for your buck you're ever going to get.
I'll turn to Danielle St-Aubin, our CEO, to continue our presentation.