Natural Resources committee  If I may add something here, you talk about the role of technology and innovation in transformation. Basically transformation takes time and energy and investment for the long term. It's important to recognize that, in the past, we were pushing technology and now we're trying to be more mindful of the market and understand how those new materials and products will be used in the marketplace and where there is the most potential for growth for those materials.

Natural Resources committee  It's one tonne of CO2. Basically, on average, every time you use a cubic metre of wood in a building, it sequesters one tonne of CO2 overall. We're doing various studies for various provinces and we figure that sequestration of CO2 in buildings, in wood, is one of the best kinds of return on investment, if you will, in terms of the value you can get in reducing CO2 emissions.

Natural Resources committee  If I may add on the de-risking, I think you're putting your finger on exactly some of the right issues and where additional funding will be needed. We need to realize that when we look at investment and de-risking, we need to look at the process, and the products, and we need to de-risk the market as well.

Natural Resources committee  The market, unfortunately—

Natural Resources committee  That's it exactly—and fast-tracking the process.

Natural Resources committee  Actually, he'll start first.

Natural Resources committee  Thank you, Mr. Chair, and members, for the invitation to present as a witness to this group. Our organization has presented a few times on other topics. We want to maintain our role as being kind of a third party, factual and science-based organization. I believe everybody has a copy, French and English, of the brief.

Natural Resources committee  You can start, Michael.

Natural Resources committee  Our role as FPInnovations is basically providing science and facts to support decision-makers, designers, and architects, and so on in terms of what they're going to do. We don't get into the policy and the amendments as such. I think I'll leave that to you, the experts, to do that.

Natural Resources committee  I don't have all the most recent data. When you look at the potential for growth in Canada and also in North America more broadly.... We talked about mid-rise in terms of volume, but I believe that governments have a devoir d'exemplarité. I am not sure how you translate that, but as an organization you need to act by example—maybe that's the translation—and show what's possible and open the doors to some of those potential new buildings and new applications.

Natural Resources committee  First, I'm a forester by training. Your explanation was very good, so I don't have to repeat it. You did very well. Actually, people look at forests more as a straight Polaroid picture than a video. Nature is a living ecosystem. It goes up in fires, has insects, and whatever. They are not static ecosystems, they are living ecosystems.

Natural Resources committee  I don't know the specifics of that, nor the restaurant, but in terms of the quality of the product, in drying wood, wood is a living material as well. We try to dry it down to a certain level. After it gets into an environment, things change, and when you look at the structural side, that is taken into account.

Natural Resources committee  Yes, that can be done properly, both aspects there.

Natural Resources committee  I feel that my colleagues from the Canadian Wood Council would be better able to give you an answer on that, because they take care of the interface with the National Building Code. We provide the information needed for wood to be recognized for use in 10- or 12-storey buildings.

Natural Resources committee  Yes. The thing is that, in some sectors, wood is not accepted. Instead of evaluating the performance of wood as a material in construction systems, they prefer not to consider it. So I feel that the value of the bill lies in the fact that it will make wood a very competitive material once again, one that is also positive in terms of the environment.