Natural Resources committee  Yes, this has been an issue that has been raised by our members consistently over a number of years. We've seen particular issues in the west, in British Columbia, for example. What happens in practice is that a company will request a certain number of railcars. They won't get the number they requested, or they'll get them on a different day.

Natural Resources committee  Thank you very much, Mr. Chair. Thank you for inviting us here to testify at this committee today. I would like to introduce David Church, who's the director of transportation at FPAC. He's here at the table with me. I know that the president of FPAC, Avrim Lazar, has been here to testify in these important hearings already.

International Trade committee  We haven't done any quantitative estimates of the benefit of the agreement, but we have seen quite rapid growth on the solid wood export side already--about 25% over the last two years. We would expect that that would be even more rapid if we could get rid of some of the tariffs that are in place currently, at a minimum of 25% a year and possibly more.

International Trade committee  I'll just respond quickly to that. Our industry has years of experience in trying to deal with these issues, particularly in the area of building codes. Our experience is that you have to sell people what they want to buy from you. You have to sell it to them in a way that meets their codes.

International Trade committee  Est-ce que je peux répondre? We hear this a lot, that we should be exporting and we should be producing value-added as opposed to non-value-added. I think it's a bit of a dead end, in a way. For example, if you look at the forest products industry, it's one of the most capital-intensive industries in the country.

International Trade committee  I would simply like to add one more thing. It is very important that agreements also include a process for resolving problems or disputes. Non-tariff barriers are often the most difficult barriers to overcome and they can crop up at any time. When a barrier occurs, if there is no dispute resolution mechanism in place, if there is no free trade agreement or political support at the highest level of the two countries in order to resolve the issue, we can very quickly find ourselves in a situation where we have no access to a market, without any way of rectifying the situation.

International Trade committee  We've been regularly consulted by the federal negotiators on the Canada-Korea free trade agreement as it's gone along.

International Trade committee  Thank you, Mr. Chair. Thank you for inviting me here to testify today and for giving me the last word among your panellists today. By way of introduction, the Forest Products Association of Canada is the voice of the forest products industry nationally and internationally. Our members operate pulp and paper and forest product companies in all provinces of Canada.

Natural Resources committee  I would add one thing, which is that I think it's also important to look at the issue of renewable energy policy across the industry as a whole. There are issues around forest carbon sequestration where we fully support what Mr. MacDonald and Mr. Bettle have been saying. There are also issues on the plant, on the manufacturing side--better incentives for capital investment, better incentives for power generation through renewable energy, renewable portfolios, standards that allow companies to actually contribute to the grid.

Natural Resources committee  ... for investment. We have proposed a tax credit for investment that could help to reduce marginal taxes on investment and align them with those of our colleagues in other natural resource-based sectors. Furthermore, we are proposing that the competition policy be applied in recognition of the fact that our companies must compete on world markets and not on Canadian or local markets.

Natural Resources committee  I do not have much to add, except that global competition in this sector, as in many others, is more intense. When producers enter our North American markets, that exerts pressure on the prices. Often, this pressure falls upon those producers whose costs of production are higher.

Natural Resources committee  One of the consequences of the problems that we encountered with the Americans in the area of softwood lumber is that the portion of the American market that is in the hands of our competitors has doubled over the last four or five year. We believe that that share is going to continue to increase if there are barriers and restrictions between our two countries.

Natural Resources committee  We are really looking for a sectoral strategy for the industry. This would involve several components, including improvements to the incentives...

Natural Resources committee  Thank you for your questions. On the issues of raw log exports and the availability of fibre, the key issue from our perspective is sustaining a robust and competitive domestic industry. That's why we are really pushing for an improved tax regime on capital investment, for example.

Natural Resources committee  Good morning, Mr. Chairman and members of the committee. On behalf of the member committees of the Forest Products Association of Canada, let me first say that we greatly welcome this very important opportunity to provide the committee with our perspective on the key challenges and opportunities for Canada's forest products industry.