Natural Resources committee  Thank you very much for raising that point. Overall, there has been a declining availability of resources for first nations, not just in the forest sector but for all our organizations. It makes it very challenging for us to provide the product that we want to build a relationship with other levels of government.

Natural Resources committee  Yes, absolutely. In fact, as an organization, we did partner a number of years ago with the BC Bioenergy Network, which generously offered some resources for us to participate in looking at small-scale combined heat and power bioenergy facilities for first nations. We have more than 50 remote communities in B.C. that are on diesel generators, surrounded by the woodlands, in which we could be installing these units and transferring to green energy.

Natural Resources committee  Yes, thank you for that question. I raised that point because back in 2008 we were very actively involved in federal transfer funds to the province, and the mitigation effort that was going to happen, the previous commitment for 10 years of mitigating the mountain pine beetle epidemic—and most of it was about mountain pine beetle, from my perspective.

Natural Resources committee  Thank you for the question. I would have to say that innovation in the sector doesn't directly satisfy what our leadership is looking for. I made the comment in my report that of recent days and years, we've seen innovation mostly to be finding new markets internationally. That success obviously supports our success as well because of our eagerness to participate in the sector.

Natural Resources committee  Yes, absolutely. We've put in funding applications; we've had challenges. Western diversification is a good one. It has an envelope for education. We have one on the table now, hoping it will make it through the online submission, although we have not had very good success with our funding applications in that regard, because they're open beyond aboriginal content, and it's an extremely competitive environment right now.

Natural Resources committee  Thank you very much for the question. We're quite excited about what we're calling now the first nations forestry workforce initiative. After a number of years of looking at the upcoming demand in the forest sector for the workforce, we took it upon ourselves to get involved in provincial-level studies to identify what is that demand.

Natural Resources committee  Good afternoon and thank you. It's my pleasure to be here to speak to you on behalf of the First Nations Forestry Council. Although we've been asked to speak on the regional economic development theme, you'll hear aspects of all three themes in this presentation. We believe that the relevance of first nations in your current study has never been more paramount.