Natural Resources committee  Lots.

Natural Resources committee  Yes. I'll talk particularly about our company. We believe very heavily in investing in our people. We have full-time trainers on staff. We believe in promoting internally. The current president of our company started off 30 years ago piling lumber in our remanufacturing plant, an

Natural Resources committee  Yes, I'll do it in a minute. I'll try to do it very quickly and simply. The sawmills pay the duty, the tax, on their lumber when they ship it across. We bring that lumber in at—just to pick a number—let's say $300. We add $200 of labour to it, we add waste, we add profit, etc. T

Natural Resources committee  In the previous deal, we had something that was...the tax was on what was called “first mill”, so we only had to pay the tax on the $300 that we paid for the lumber as it entered our plant.

Natural Resources committee  We're bringing in wood from all over Canada into our plants in Ontario. Under this scenario, in the absence of a deal there is going to be a duty. Then we're going to have to fight it. If the duty is the same—

Natural Resources committee  There is a duty today, which is less than the duty was four months ago. Four months ago it was the equivalent of about 50% for us; today it's the equivalent of about 14% for us. They keep changing things. Depending on the announcement that comes out of the States today, we're ant

Natural Resources committee  It's a good question. As I said, the mills are highly automated. They've spent a lot of money. Irving has acknowledged that they are one of the top ones in terms of what they've been able to do, and what they've been able to do is great. It has produced a lot of lumber with very

Natural Resources committee  Yes, I did mention that. I think it all comes down to.... If there is a finite pool, if that turns out to be the way the deal is—and, you know, we just don't know for sure—I think the government should be very cognizant of distributing it based on the greatest economic impact, th

Natural Resources committee  It's a very good question. Remanufacturers are probably the most entrepreneurial members of the forest products community. We're always buying somebody's waste and trying to turn it into something. That changes all the time. You give us a level playing field and we can be very in

Natural Resources committee  Yes. I don't think it's private, because we've heard it from several people outside of that room. There was a deal offered by Wilbur Ross of the United States to Minister Freeland, and she was calling the 10 or 12 of us in that room together to ask for our advice on whether Canad

Natural Resources committee  Unfortunately, it's a very short answer. At double duties we shut down. There is no alternative to that. Quite frequently people say, “But not all your business is in the States. You still have your Canadian business.” We bring our lumber in and cut it up; we slice it and dice it

Natural Resources committee  Okay. We also have another piece of remanufactured product to hand out to you. If you want, we can wait until the end.

Natural Resources committee  Do you want to ask questions now?

Natural Resources committee  Would you like our colleagues to hand these out now?

Natural Resources committee  Thank you very much for your time, ladies and gentlemen.