Thank you, Mr. Chair.
Thank you once again to all the witnesses for appearing. It's good to see some of you again; thanks for the cookies.
This is a huge issue for my Vancouver Island North riding. We just learned last week that another one of our mills is going to close in May. It's a blow for the community. We're really concerned about the impact that's going to have on the sawmill adjacent to it, because of the high price of fibre. I've met with the mill manager and talked about this many times. It's a problem for us.
The logging that's happening is great; there are good jobs there. Since I come from a logging family, I understand that. But the sawmill that's closing is exporting the high-grade logs and milling the lesser grade, so the lumber prices of course are lower. That seems to be a problem. Is there is any way to legislate that we mill the better-quality logs, keep the value-added here in Canada, and keep the jobs going?
Mr. Lazar, the other part of it is that you mentioned the problems with the provincial government and the chill on mergers from the Competition Bureau. I'm curious to know about some of the problems you see with provincial government legislation that's having a negative impact. Also, do you think the federal government should have more oversight and more regulatory impact, and maybe take some of that away from the provinces?