The Senate Agriculture and Forestry Committee had its first meeting last night on the state of the forestry industry in Canada. It has been a long time since this committee looked at this industry but there is no better time than now because it is in rough shape.

As was described by the witness last night, Jim Farrell, ADM for the Department of Natural Resources Canada, there has been a conjuncture of events that has severely affected this sector. It started with the decline in demand for paper products over the last two decades coupled with the Softwood Lumber Agreement, pine beetle outbreak in Western Canada, the high dollar last year, then the housing crisis in the US and now the recession.

This industry has been a silent workhorse for the Canadian economy and we have taken it for granted. It is an $80 billion a year industry that employees 750,000 direct and indirect workers in Canada (according to the Forestry Products Association of Canada website). As a committee we must work hard to help this industry through the downturn in the economy so when we come out of the recession we will have a thriving innovative forestry sector in future. The forest is a very valuable resource to Canada and the world. It deserves our care and attention.  

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