Mr. Speaker, I know the member is concerned about his constituents as are the rest of us in British Columbia. We are dealing with a forestry industry that is in tremendous transition. The interior has been hammered hard by pine beetle and that will change things for decades.
The whole industry has changed since the gravy days of the 1980s to which the member referred. He is right that there have been tremendous changes. The downturn in the U.S. economy in the last half a year has been the final hammer in a whole series of changes in the forestry industry. The latest slam is really devastating our industry. However, we are competing today against inferior products from other parts of the world. We still have the best coastal timber in the world on the coast of B.C. The challenge is in the interior.
We are competing against inferior wood from other parts of the world. The wood is bound together with glues and resins, which are structurally as sound as our best coastal timber. The challenge we face is that we have to find higher-value products for our wood products. The industry itself is in transition. We cannot go back to the past, so we have to transition into the future.
Will the member acknowledge that, since we cannot go back to the past, we have to find the value added and the innovative ways to use our forest industry? It will change—