Natural Resources Committee on Oct. 30th, 2025

[Corey Tochor, Conservative, Saskatoon—University, SK]

It will take 52.6 years to plant them, to fulfill the promise the Liberals made.

Once again, past performance is the best indicator of future performance. This government has missed the mark immensely on this promise they made. When you have the 52.6 years it would take if they're on the current trend, minus the six years that have already passed, it's 46 years more it will take for the Liberals to fulfill their commitment of two billion trees, which is a travesty for our country and the promise to plant those two billion trees.

I believe we've seen this across many other government agencies. There's a lot of “planning to do this” and “we're going to act on this” and “do this and spend this money”. What we've found in this example is that they're off by 46 years, versus the commitment to plant two billion trees by 2031, which is garbage as a performance for a country and for the Liberal promise. It's an indication of what I think we can expect of many promises from the Liberal government.

Mr. Chair, I'd like to cede my time to my colleague—

[Glenn Hargrove]

Mr. Chair, may I respond?

[The Chair, Liberal, Terry Duguid]

Yes.

[Corey Tochor, Conservative, Saskatoon—University, SK]

No. Pause the time, if you would.

[The Chair, Liberal, Terry Duguid]

It is the member's time, and he's passing his time along. Is it to Mr. Gill?

[Corey Tochor, Conservative, Saskatoon—University, SK]

No. I'm ceding my time to another colleague.

[The Chair, Liberal, Terry Duguid]

Okay. Very good.

[Corey Tochor, Conservative, Saskatoon—University, SK]

They'll have some time to answer that.

[The Chair, Liberal, Terry Duguid]

You can work your response into the next intervention.

Mr. Malette, go ahead.

[Gaétan Malette, Conservative, Kapuskasing—Timmins—Mushkegowuk, ON]

Thank you.

Mr. Hargrove, you mentioned the support package of $1.25 billion. Could you outline the rollout, timelines, the eligibility criteria and the delivery mechanisms? At the same time, what portions are already committed versus those yet to be disbursed?

[Glenn Hargrove]

Sure.

Within that package, there is $700 million in loan guarantees delivered through the Business Development Bank of Canada. That is starting to roll out this week and is for softwood lumber producers and remanufacturers.

There is $500 million in forest sector transformation programming, the funding for which starts on April 1. That's a renewal of related programming from Natural Resources Canada that's ongoing this year. There is funding this year, but the new funding starts on April 1.

There is a wide range of eligible recipients for those programs because it's a suite of programs: forest industry participants, indigenous groups, and also, there's an international aspect to that in terms of industry associations. A couple of key things that I would point out about this is that the government is reinvesting in offshore market diversification initiatives. That's an important piece to diversify away from the U.S. market. There's also a very heavy emphasis on supporting the housing agenda through that programming.

There's also $50 million that is delivered through ESDC. That will be delivered through the provinces through the labour market development agreements. Those conversations with the provinces are in full swing to deliver that funding through the LMDAs.

[Gaétan Malette, Conservative, Kapuskasing—Timmins—Mushkegowuk, ON]

In your introduction you mentioned the $1.25 billion, and you said there was $700 million. Is it $1.25 billion plus the $700 million or is that part of it?

[The Chair, Liberal, Terry Duguid]

We'd like just a quick answer, Mr. Hargrove, because we have to go on to the next speaker.

[Glenn Hargrove]

Okay.

Yes, the $700 million is included in the $1.25 billion.

[Gaétan Malette, Conservative, Kapuskasing—Timmins—Mushkegowuk, ON]

Okay. Thank you.

[The Chair, Liberal, Terry Duguid]

We're going to Mr. Hogan for six minutes.

[Corey Hogan, Liberal, Calgary Confederation, AB]

Thank you, Mr. Chair.

Mr. Hargrove and Mr. Smith, thank you for being here today. I always appreciate hearing from our professional public service. I appreciate the work you do. I know that it's not an easy job and that sometimes you must feel like a ball being hit between two players with a net in between, but I've really appreciated working with you.

Forestry is core to our Canadian economy and identity. My own family has worked in forestry since the centuries before Canada was a country, and the U.S. tariffs and duties are completely unjustified. We all know that. I know the government is working at every level to resolve it. The fight with the United States over softwood has been going on my whole life as well, and we can't let our sector be at the whims of a U.S. administration or based on what the senator from Oregon had for breakfast any longer.

I have questions about how we diversify overall, but before I get into anything specific, I wonder if you want to take the opportunity to expand on diversification efforts and your thoughts on the opportunities for Canadian products globally.

[Glenn Hargrove]

Sure. Thank you very much.

I would highlight two pieces here.

One important piece is diversifying our markets and products here in Canada. The housing agenda really gives us an opportunity for the industry to divert some of its exports to the U.S. into the Canadian market and to support that agenda, and also to transform into higher value-added engineered wood products, such as mass timber, prefabricated and modular housing components and those sorts of things.

Also, there's an opportunity to continue to grow our markets offshore in Asia, Europe and the Middle East and look at growth in those markets.

We also need to do what we can to protect our access to the U.S. market, which is, as we know, our largest market.

If we can work on all those fronts, we can grow opportunities for the sector and really have a prosperous and sustainable future for the industry in Canada.

[Corey Hogan, Liberal, Calgary Confederation, AB]

Thank you.

You talked about some of the Canadian markets. I know that a lot of those opportunities are tied to geography. You also talked about the ecosystem being quite interconnected, with timber from sawmills and their activity driving the availability of chips and then, of course, the overall health of the soft forestry industry, like pulp and things like that.

I'm wondering if you can talk a bit more about that ecosystem, your thoughts on how it has evolved and what the committee should be thinking about as we write our report when it comes to the ecosystem and clusters within Canada.

[Glenn Hargrove]

That's a great question.

The forest sector is really an interconnected sector. Softwood lumber production is a key sort of linchpin in the sector, but it doesn't operate in isolation from the other parts of the sector. When there's a downturn in pulp and paper, that impacts softwood lumber producers who sell their chips to those mills and, conversely, when there's a downturn in softwood lumber, that can affect pulp and paper. All of these things affect the upstream harvesting sector as well.

What's important is that as we're looking at the primary softwood lumber producers, we also look at where their residues are going, where their lumber is going and what the market needs are in those cases. We've seen pulp and paper mill production go down. There have been a number of closures and curtailments in Canada, and that affects the profitability of softwood lumber mills. We need to find other uses for those chips, whether it's in different kinds of wood products, in bioenergy or in different types of bioproducts.

Also, we need to look at the primary production of lumber. As we think about growing the engineered wood product, mass timber and the prefab modular industry, we need to make sure that our primary manufacturing industry is well set up to provide those industries with the inputs they need in the form in which they need them.

These are all places where the government can work with industry in order to move along that path.

[Corey Hogan, Liberal, Calgary Confederation, AB]

That's great.

How much time do I have, Mr. Chair?

[The Chair, Liberal, Terry Duguid]

You have 57 seconds.

[Corey Hogan, Liberal, Calgary Confederation, AB]

I'll use my 57 seconds well.

I am curious. Can you expand—in whatever 57 seconds minus this is—on the opportunities for prefabricated housing that might be coming out of the lumber industry in the next bit?

[Glenn Hargrove]

Yes. In order to meet Canada's housing demand, we need to help support a more efficient construction industry. Prefab and modular housing does that. It's also a great opportunity for the Canadian forest sector.

We need to work with the industry in order to make sure they're investing in the right places, aligned with market demand and that rise in market demand, and in making sure that codes and standards allow for those sorts of construction methods as well.

[The Chair, Liberal, Terry Duguid]

Thank you.

Completing this round, we have Mr. Simard.

You have six minutes.