Natural Resources committee  I do. In fact, in the province of Alberta, regulation was put in place quite a number of years ago—probably 15 years ago—to require mills to move chips from a sawmill into a pulp mill and to move sawdust into an MDF plant. It was through regulation that the province governed wood transfer from mill to mill.

Natural Resources committee  When I made the statement earlier, I was thinking specifically of waste materials left on an agricultural field, the straw or things like that. In this day and age, with controls being exercised on electrical generation in the province, companies are looking at the opportunity to co-fire biomass and coal.

Natural Resources committee  Yes, it's something that, when I was with the Canadian forest service, we looked at on a number of occasions. More recently, the province has been looking at the opportunity to utilize biomass as a heat source and for electrical generation in communities. There hasn't been a lot of development in that respect.

Natural Resources committee  I just want to make the observation that, in my understanding, in New Brunswick, one of the major operators owns a significant portion of the forest land base. Almost all of the companies operating in the province of Alberta operate on provincial crown land under that forest management agreement, so there are some leverages that could be utilized by the provincial government to entice or incent.

Natural Resources committee  Okay. Harmonizing of programs is a very significant opportunity. I think that you can be leading the way on policy development. Yes, we've seen biofuel development in this country, but it's been slow, and I think there are some policy impediments to more rapid development. There are many opportunities associated with the bioindustry in this country, but I think there is a need for a more concerted, collaborative effort across the country, and I see the federal government being the instrument to permit that.

Natural Resources committee  BRIMS was developed through a private sector company, a geomatics company. They work with both oil and gas and forest sector companies. They are the repository for much of the data associated with oil and gas and forestry operations in the province. The data is housed in BRIMS and is accessible through BRIMS at the leisure and pleasure of the FMA holder, of the company.

Natural Resources committee  Thank you very much, Mr. Chair. Thank you, committee members, for the opportunity to share my views and comments this morning with you. Those views reflect my experience as a former federal employee with the Canadian foreign service, and recently, as executive director of bioindustrial development with an organization called Alberta Innovates.