Natural Resources committee  The deputy minister is quite correct. About $950 million of that $1 billion total was allocated to firms in the industry. Obviously, we still have a few days left in the program. We don't have precise figures, but our expectation is that the great majority of those funds will be

Natural Resources committee  Yes, Mr. Chair. It is true that there is a fairly robust body of evidence that compares wood against other materials on what is usually called a life-cycle basis, meaning that you look at building a particular structure out of different materials—concrete, steel, wood—and you loo

Natural Resources committee  As you alluded to, it's a $1 billion program over three years, so it will end at the end of this fiscal year—that is, in the 2011-12 fiscal year. We anticipate that all, or virtually all, of the moneys allocated under that program will be utilized to support capital investments

Natural Resources committee  In a forest-sector context, there are really two facets to genomics research. One is with respect to forest pests, finding better ways to detect and control forest pests. There are also genomics applications in terms of tree growth, forest management, etc. My recollection is tha

Natural Resources committee  There were really two facets to our assistance for the forest sector. The minister touched on these. We've talked quite a bit about our efforts to diversify markets to make the Canadian industry, particularly the wood products sector, less reliant on the U.S. market. We feel we h

Natural Resources committee  On certification of sustainable forest management practices, Canada is unambiguously the global leader in terms of the number of hectares certified. I'm quoting from memory, but my recollection is that Canadian forests account for something like 40% of the global number of hectar

Natural Resources committee  Maybe I can talk about our efforts to promote innovation and the production of value-added products in the forestry sector, if that can help answer your question.

Natural Resources committee  Certainly we do have initiatives in partnership with industry to brand Canadian forest products as environmentally preferred. One of the selling points of wood construction is that on a life-cycle basis, wood construction tends to have a lighter energy and environmental footprint

Natural Resources committee  That's fine.

Natural Resources committee  We co-fund what is called the Canada Wood Group. So there are federal, provincial, and industry contributions that go to a not-for-profit organization that administers offices—in the case of China, in Beijing, Chengdu, and Shanghai, as well as offices in Europe, South Korea, and

Natural Resources committee  Sure. Thank you for the question. Regarding our forest product exports to China, as the minister described, we've seen very rapid growth, both on the pulp and paper side, particularly pulp products, and also on the wood products side. On the wood products side, there is a mix of

Natural Resources committee  It's a bit of both. Of course, in North America wood gets used in a variety of different types of construction, but primarily in residential construction. In China, of course, you tend to have much higher population densities, much more multi-family housing. So in many cases we'v

Natural Resources committee  In the overseas context, we do fund programs in partnership with industry and provinces to do work on codes and standards to actively promote wood construction. In addition to that, in China and other target markets we maintain a government to government relationship, working wit