International Trade committee  We haven't seen the forest annex yet, but we understand it's there.

International Trade committee  The government has taken some steps by increasing the tools in our toolbox, but, as I have indicated several times in appearances to the transportation committee, we need to do more. We have a terrific imbalance of power between the two railways that operate as monopolies in the forest products industry, and for all shippers, quite frankly.

International Trade committee  I have not yet actually. As I said I think there will be more opportunities from CETA. I don't have the figures for the extra differential. I was hoping to be able to crunch them. I think part of it is that we don't actually have all the final fine print so we haven't been able to read the fine print of the final text.

International Trade committee  Okay. If you did I'd like you to share it. Thanks.

International Trade committee  I did try to reference—and I hope I did a decent job of this—the fact that some tariffs will immediately fall by up to 10% for some of our subcategories, so this is huge. We do export an awful lot. I didn't get into the specifics, but pulp and paper would be the bulk of our exports to Europe.

International Trade committee  The first question is whether we are going to be able to incent the investments to be made here in Canada. There are investment dollars out there for sure. The question is, again, how do we assure ourselves—and this is something that I must confess to being personally obsessed with—that we will make the investments in our rural communities here in Canada versus, for example, in the southern United States where we have seen large Canadian companies?

International Trade committee  Yes. We have a very global reach, but my point is that we want to compete with the investment climate of these other nations. Now to the point my former colleague made, the trees are indeed here in Canada, but there's a lot more we need to look at in order to be cost-effective.

International Trade committee  Absolutely. I have a number of points I'd like to make. Thank you very much for those thoughtful questions. The 60,000 number and the specific identification of where we'd like to get them comes from a fundamental philosophy that we would like to attract our neighbours to the industry first.

International Trade committee  Well, we're living one at the moment. With respect to immediate transformation of the forest industry, real-time, is the dissolving pulp and getting into textiles. But there's a tremendous array of new products that we've unleashed from the Canadian forest, and we're beginning, through a number of enabling programs federally, to demonstrate their applicability at a commercial level.

International Trade committee  As you likely know, we do export product to Europe from across the country, but with a heavier emphasis from the east. That would make some sense given the proximity to market. But I think our infrastructure challenges around ports are not limited to the eastern ports. I think there is a definite need for....

International Trade committee  We're well beyond that.

International Trade committee  As mentioned in my remarks, the trade offices are actually really important. There is no way we could have received the information we received just yesterday from the MOFCOM in China without boots on the ground in China. Whether there are efficiencies to be gained in the system, I think like anything it's worth taking a look at—but in strategic markets trade offices are very important.

International Trade committee  Thank you. Good morning, everybody. Mr. Chair and honourable members, I really appreciate the opportunity to be here. It's wonderful to share the panel with my former colleague. Let's make sure we give him the tough questions.

International Trade committee  The forest industry, as you likely know, is an important part of Canada's economy. We are global players, but we also are the economic backbone of 200 rural communities across Canada that are almost entirely dependent on the forest industry for their livelihoods. We employ 236,000 Canadians directly.

Finance committee  It's a very exciting opportunity that's right in the heart of it.