Thank you very much.
Chair, I'm happy to hear that you had an issue trying to pronounce my co-chair's company, because I refer to him as Nordic Structures. It's a lot easier.
Frédéric and I both appreciate the opportunity to present to you today. I'm Ken Kalesnikoff. We're based in southeastern British Columbia. Frédéric's company is based in Quebec.
Thank you for giving us this opportunity to speak to you today on the report from the Canadian forest sector transformation task force. Our membership included me and Frédéric; Jim Irving from J.D. Irving Ltd. and Kent Homes; Brad Carr, CEO of Mattamy Homes; Lana Payne, national president of Unifor; Luc Thériault, the CEO of Domtar Canada; Lenny Joe, representing first nations with the BC First Nations Forestry Council; and Don Roberts, CEO of Nawitka Capital Advisors Ltd.
I'll start off by providing a bit of background on how this all came together. Then I will turn it over to my co-chair. I'll try to get through this quickly and leave Frédéric as much time as I can on the detail.
We were invited by Minister Hodgson to take on this role last December. We were given a 90-day mandate to identify priority actions to accelerate the transformation of Canada's forest sector. This group came together on a volunteer basis. We each brought our own perspectives and diverse but complementary expertise on what goes into attracting capital investment, on transforming operations in large and small enterprises, on first nations economic development, on the importance of Canada's skilled workers and on what is needed to fast-track affordable housing in Canada. We spent 88 days engaging with dozens of stakeholders and experts, including senior officials from federal, provincial and territorial governments. We reviewed 176 submissions by interested parties.
The report was released a few weeks ago. The title, “Competitive. Relevant. Resilient.”, stuck with us right from the beginning. It was suggested by Frédéric and is a very relevant name for the report.
This is what we are seeking, not for ourselves and our personal interests but on behalf of Canadians and communities whose livelihoods depend on the health of our forest sector. We're all facing many external pressures—the ongoing trade dispute with the U.S., global market shifts, the collapse in markets for communications paper, and record-breaking wildfire seasons. As a task force, we deliberately chose not to focus on these things, as they are, frankly, outside our control.
For too long, we in the forest industry and in government have sought to deflect attention away from the problems we have created for ourselves by blaming distant others. The fact remains that global demand for forest products continues to rise. Canada's forest products are world class, sustainably harvested and manufactured with some of the highest technologies and rates of renewable energy used globally. But by and large, major investments are not being made in Canada. They are instead being made in Scandinavia, the United States and Brazil. This is largely because of poorly adapted systems and regulations that are in our control but that we have failed to change.
However, while transformation and modernization will require a huge lift, we were heartened to look at the facts and confirm the extent to which this really is in our hands, as Canadians, to do better. It has been an incredible experience. People we spoke with were generous with their time, their insight and their data, which ultimately allowed us to get specific about what needs to change and how we might go about doing so.
I'll pass it over to Frédéric.