Thank you, Mr. Chairman.
Gentlemen, thank you for coming. It's been a most informative morning thus far. I appreciate the expertise in the forest industry that you bring, particularly because we're getting a side from the pulp and paper industry, the Quebec industry overall, and of course the wood products business from Mr. Lazar.
I really liked what I heard in some opening statements. Most people would say that their first thought about the forest industry is that it's in a severe downturn right now, bordering on recession, and there's a lot of doom and gloom. I don't share the philosophy that the sky is falling.
Mr. Lazar, you used a great word--“transformation”. It's true. Having lived in interior B.C. for just about fifty years now, I've seen a huge transformation in the forest industry. When I went to Prince George in 1959, there were about 600 small sawmills employing x number of people in the area. Twenty years later there were about 30 or 40 larger sawmills employing the same number of people. Twenty years from there we're down to maybe eight or nine major sawmills in Prince George proper that employ more people than were employed in the 600 sawmills. So the transformation has not meant automatically that there are going to be job losses. In fact, our experience has shown that it's contributed not only to the employment numbers but also to the advance in technology in the forest industry that we've needed to stay at the head of the pack on a world picture, and we certainly are doing that.
I'm happy to say that located in my riding are probably the most technologically advanced sawmills in the entire world. They are in central British Columbia. They include West Fraser and Dunkley Lumber and Canfor, as you know; these mills and companies like AbitibiBowater and others across the country will make it through this transformation period because they've done what they had to do over their years of growth. They will make it through.
There will some continuing transformations, and we are getting a good understanding of what you want from government and the partnership role we can play. It does not necessarily mean dumping a bunch of money into the industry, because, first of all, that is not necessarily the answer, and second, we may be verging on a softwood lumber challenge the minute the Americans see or even perceive we're aiding the industry directly in that manner.
I want to bring to your attention an article that appeared in The Globe and Mail. I found it really interesting, and it backs up what you're saying. CIBC world markets analyst Don Roberts has made some excellent comments about the opportunities in the forest industry, particularly in pulp and paper, in what he calls “the convergence of global markets for food, fuel, and fibre”. He suggests that in the developing countries, the huge and growing demand for increased production of food and increased production of biofuels requires taking over more and more land that's used to grow trees; therefore, the amount of wood fibre available for pulp and paper will shrink, which will put our mills and our industry in a much better global position, a position that will continue to improve.
First of all, I don't know if you've seen this article, but if any of you have, it has some great comments. Perhaps we could start by getting some comments on this. I'd appreciate it.