International Trade committee  Thank you. I'm Mike Beck with Capacity Forest Management. I'm their operational planner. We have managed over 20 first nation clients in B.C. We help gather tenure through government to government as well as licencee negotiations. We've also been instrumental in two foundation a

International Trade committee  I'll let you take that.

Natural Resources committee  Thank you, Chair and committee members, for this opportunity to speak regarding aspects of Canada's forest economy. Our company, Capacity Forest Management, has been working with probably 18 to 20 first nation bands across the province of British Columbia, helping with pathway a

Natural Resources committee  Okay. The fee-in-lieu aspect is another challenge for many first nation companies here that are impacted by the variable rate for lower-valued whitewood—hemlock, balsam and spruce—which is taxed typically at 10% to 35% of their domestic value. The higher the value surrounding th

Natural Resources committee  Okay. Fee-in-lieu will impact many of our first nation projects. I'll leave it at that.

Natural Resources committee  On the competitive aspect, it changed to the lumber-based pricing system, and we're seeing astronomical lumber pricing, which is now creating a high stumpage rate for B.C. It's making it very uncompetitive to try to get those logs to the lumber mills as well as to market. The ap

Natural Resources committee  One of the recent and very positive aspects of working with the province as well as with the federal government has been the foundation pathway agreement that has been put in place. We worked with the Shíshálh band on the Sunshine Coast and with the Lake Babine Nation up in the B

Natural Resources committee  The provincial and federal governments would be able to help fund some of the training opportunities. The foundation agreement was an example: We ended up training several first nation band members on logging equipment, and they now have full-time jobs. It's also working with lic

Natural Resources committee  I feel that more funding from the federal government to help establish some of these biofuel-type avenues, to help with climate change, would definitely help. The strategies are out there, as Mr. Orr has noted, but the funding is minuscule for what is actually needed if we are to

Natural Resources committee  Yes, absolutely. With the high stumpage rates, the 75% stumpage return is through a forest tenure opportunity agreement. It was provided through the Province of British Columbia under the foundation agreement that was awarded to the first nation clients. Yes, it's great to see

Natural Resources committee  The first nations licensee holders and tenure holders are basically market loggers and don't have a mill or anything like that, whereas licensees can pay that higher stumpage and see profits at the end when they throw that lumber out into the open market at $900 to $1,000 a thous

Natural Resources committee  Right now, two billion trees is going to be quite difficult when you have other licence holders and only a certain number of greenhouses to produce those seedlings. What we're looking at right now is that Canada usually plants about 600 million trees a year across Canada. In B.C.

Natural Resources committee  The biggest hurdle right now, again, as Mr. Orr and I have already noted, is acquiring forest tenure for first nations. It is one of the toughest things. During these timber supply reviews, the government needs to apportion more volume to first nations to allow them to get into t

Natural Resources committee  Not that I am really aware of. I don't know if Mr. Orr would have any comment on that.

Natural Resources committee  No, we haven't done any analysis yet, but it is on the horizon to start looking at it as part of the performance and net profit and revenue share for the first nations forestry businesses that we work with.