Thank you, Mr. Chair.
I want to thank the committee for taking the time today to delve deeper into the issue of our industrial sector and the disruptions and perfect storm under way. We appreciate your interest in our sector, given your key role, of course. I heard witnesses on the previous panel refer to the budget. However, you play a key role in public policy in Canada. With that in mind, I want to thank you for taking this time.
I'll start by introducing Chantiers Chibougamau. We're a family business with 1,700 employees, mainly in Quebec. We have facilities in Chibougamau, in Lebel‑sur‑Quévillon, in Landrienne near Amos, in La Sarre, in Béarn in Abitibi‑Témiscamingue, in Matagami and in Montreal.
We process just over 15% of Quebec's coniferous forest. This amounts to around 700 million board feet of lumber leaving our sawmills each year. This places us in the top 10 largest softwood lumber producers in Canada. We also have a major presence in the engineered wood, light‑frame floor systems and I‑joist sectors.
Our Chibougamau plant produces floor joists that can be used to build 55,000 new homes per year. For the record, Quebec builds 14,000 new residential units per year. We make a huge contribution to residential construction across North America. We also have a kraft pulp mill. Every place that you visit in Ottawa may contain kraft pulp from our Lebel‑sur‑Quévillon mill. The mill also generates renewable energy to supplement the process. That's our organization in a nutshell.
I'm here today to talk about the aforementioned perfect storm and what we can do about it. In the forestry industry, we've always talked about this topic by focusing on the industry, the workers and companies such as ours. We lose sight of the medium‑term and long‑term perspective, meaning the supply chain to which we belong.
However, now more than ever, as we stand at a crossroads in this perfect storm, mobilize for Build Canada Homes, face a housing shortage in the country and in the North American market and hope to see reconstruction soon in Ukraine and Gaza and a revival of a Russian economy currently under pressure, an exceptional amount of wood has become available.
That said, let's take a step back and remember the year 2021.
In 2021, there was no Ukraine or Gaza to rebuild. We didn't have the current construction backlog in the United States. The economy wasn't slowing down. We didn't have a lumber shortage in North America. We believe that our current focus should remain on the pressure facing the supply chain. This should drive our efforts to support the response to this perfect storm.
Our companies are quite large and solid. However, the problem lies with our subcontractors. They can get lost in the fog of this perfect storm. Remember that a chain is only as strong as its weakest link. We need to keep these companies in mind now as we search for ways to weather the storm.
We have a great deal of work ahead of us. Certain government measures are currently being implemented. We're saying [Technical difficulty—Editor] that we need to step up our efforts to address the current crisis. I would be happy to elaborate on this in the next few moments [Technical difficulty—Editor].
Thank you, and [Technical difficulty—Editor].