The Honourable Greg Rickford
Canada’s Minister of Natural Resources and Minister for the Federal Economic Development Initiative for Northern Ontario
Keynote remarks at the National Forest Innovation Summit
Lakeside Inn and Conference Centre
Kenora, Ontario
July 9, 2015
Welcome everyone. It’s a great pleasure to be here with you.
As I said earlier this morning, I’m not sure that this occasion has, frankly, been available to us in a very long time, if ever, to get the profile of people that we have here today.
Over the next part of the day and certainly tomorrow as we move to Thunder Bay, we will be celebrating the opportunities in the forest sector. Yes, we will continue to talk about the challenges, but I think it’s very clear, as great football coaches and hockey coaches have said — it’s a frame of mind. It’s an attitude. If we talk about the opportunities in forestry, if we understand the issues, they ultimately become opportunities.
So for my part, I should say from the outset as the Minister of Natural Resources Canada, I take every opportunity as I move around the globe, where I would otherwise be fully vested in meetings around the oil and gas sector, to talk about forestry. And my senior officials will attest to the fact that we never go to another part of the world without putting the forest sector on the agenda, whether it’s with the same ministers, counterparts or otherwise. The forest sector is a top priority for Natural Resources Canada and for our government.
I think it’s particularly apt that we’re meeting here in northwestern Ontario, a region that that reflects the rich history of the forest sector and how it defines us as communities. It represents the challenges, and more recently, it represents the opportunities of the forest sector. Thereof, it’s across this region and across this country.
But today, we have again been reminded of the central role the forest sector can play and the central role it wants to play in creating jobs, shaping futures in communities like this one and right across the country.
Let’s talk about the importance of forestry. As you well know, Canada’s forest sector is a critical component of our economy. It contributes close to $21 billion to our GDP and directly employs more than 200,000 Canadians, including more 47,000 here in Ontario. In 2013, Canada’s forest product exports increased by more than 13 percent from the previous year to stand at over $28 billion. And we are the fourth-largest exporter of forest products in the world. We can do better.
Over the past few years, we have seen a remarkable transformation, one that is sustaining jobs for Canadians and generating new hope for communities. Indeed, according to the Forest Products Association of Canada, another 60,000 Canadians could be — if we do this right — recruited to work in the forest sector by the end of this decade.
So this National Forest Innovation Summit is important for a number of reasons. We recognize that more work needs to be done. By coming together with the profile that we’ve established in our beautiful City of Kenora for the National Forest Innovation Summit and the important Council of Canadian Forestry Ministers meetings that we will continue tomorrow in the equally beautiful City of Thunder Bay, we are, ladies and gentlemen, charting a course for the next phase, the next step of economic growth in the forest sector.
The question for this summit is not what worked in the past, and how do we reproduce it? The question is — what’s required for the future, and how can we collectively create it?
And to answer that question, we have brought together an incredible breadth of expertise and experience — governments and granting councils, industry and academia, non-governmental agencies, provinces, territories and municipal leaders — all coming together in one, broadly speaking, common cause. All here because you understand the importance of the forest sector to this country and are all looking for the best ways to move it forward. So thanks to you all for being here today.
I want to, if you’ll indulge me, to talk about how the federal government is doing its part. I’m proud of the role that our government is playing in the forest sector — working with our partners, including those of you in this room, to drive innovation, create jobs and protect jobs.
But as Richard Garneau pointed out, putting the question to our Innovation Panel, what drives innovation at the end of the day is the willingness of companies and shareholders to make investments. To deal with innovation, they must have the certainty to invest so they can take on projects that are driven by innovation, driven by academia and the important work they do to create jobs for our local mills and for our towns and cities.
So, while we have invested an unprecedented $1.8 billion in support of the ongoing transformation and renewal of the forest sector across Canada, we understand, recognize and appreciate some of the things needed. As we move into the important ministerial component of this summit in Thunder Bay, we will continue to focus on the issues and opportunities that need to be addressed.
For the federal government’s part, these investments are advancing progress in five key areas: Reducing the environmental footprint of pulp and paper mills. Advancing new technologies that have real applications and create new jobs in our communities. Commercializing those new products. Taking some risk on the scientific side with a willingness to see an idea through to a product that creates jobs, growth and economic prosperity for our communities. Diversifying markets for Canadian forest products and of course engaging, I would submit respectfully, working to integrate more fully First Nations communities into the forest sector.
Let me touch quickly on a few of those. In environmental performance, our $1-billion Pulp and Paper Green Transformation Program enhanced the environmental performance, reduced the footprint and renewed the industry’s position in the global marketplace, paving the way to long-term gains for mills and mill communities.
Mayor Nuttall, I don’t think it would be an overstatement to say that this particular program is one of the key reasons that we have hope and confidence that the mill in Dryden will continue to be a key economic force for the city and for our region. Their ability now to disconnect or to not have to depend completely on the grid for its energy sources has not just reduced the environmental footprint, not just showed that we can commercialize technology for environmental benefits, but the return on investment for shareholders to have confidence in innovation and in projects that have applications in their mills were some of the benefits heralded in our rollout of that program.
This was, in no uncertain terms, a landmark government-industry partnership, and it demonstrated what can be achieved when we work together.
Let’s talk about advancing new technologies. To advance new technologies, we have introduced FPInnovations. This is Canada’s national industry-led research organization. With new funding announced this year to the tune of $20 million FPInnovations is supporting the development of leading-edge technologies, helping to create jobs and growth in communities across the country.
Among its successes, this initiative has played a critical role in helping small and medium-sized wood manufacturers to adopt technologies and realize greater efficiencies in their manufacturing processes.
Commercializing new products. I have a frame of reference here as the former Minister of Science, Technology and Innovation. In the forest sector, to move products into the marketplace, we launched the IFIT Program, Investments in Forestry Industry Transformation. Today, I am proud to release our initial performance report covering the first four years of IFIT. It demonstrates how the program is reducing environmental impacts, creating high-value products and advancing the commercial viability of innovative technologies. With a budget of $100 million, this program has already leveraged an amazing additional $260 million in public and private sector funding, and it will help generate $66 million per year in new revenues for companies. At the same time, ladies and gentlemen, it will reduce the industry’s greenhouse gas emissions by some 60 kilotonnes per year.
Some 14 projects have already been funded, eight of which have been classified and categorized as world firsts right here in Canada.
In fact, the IFIT program has been so successful, that last year we announced an additional $90 million funded for another four years to 2018.
I’m delighted to see a number of our IFIT partners here today. Miller Western Forest Products from Alberta, which is generating energy from biomass. Kruger Incorporated from Trois-Rivières, Quebec, the first pulp mill in the world to produce cellulose filaments. And Domtar from Dryden, which is developing premium value grades of northern bleached softwood craft pulp.
I should say in addition to that, as a Regional Minister for Economic Development, the great work that FedNor and Western Economic Development and ACOA are doing. I was joking with our friends from New Brunswick yesterday — actually, they were joking with me — that we have signed off on significant investments that end up going to ministers of these regional economic development agencies. Natural Resources Canada doesn’t always get the credit that it warrants or feels that it deserves for these, but these investments come to regional economic development agencies and programs like FedNor for a very important reason: they fit what the region needs, wants and thinks it should have for the nuances in their respective regions. Canada must, as a federal government, understand that, given its vastness.
Let me talk briefly about opening new markets. Of course even the best companies without the most cutting-edge processes cannot succeed without markets for their products. That’s why as a federal government we’ve worked so hard to open new markets, both at home and abroad, through our Expanding Market Opportunities Program. As part of our global network, we’ve invested nearly $2 million to establish a market development office in Mumbai, India. We posted a full-time trade promotion officer in Abu Dhabi to boost Canadian wood exports in the Middle East. And to complement the North American part of the program, we’ve promoted using wood in new structures through our Tall Wood Building Initiative.
Our federal budget, announced this spring, helps maintain this initiative by investing a further $86 million over the next two years to extend the Forest Innovation Program and the Expanding Market Opportunities Program.
Cutting-edge science. Our government is also supporting innovation through scientific research led by Natural Resource Canada’s Canadian Forest Service, well known to all of you, which works with land managers as well as university, college and industry researchers across Canada. Together with their partners, federal scientists are developing new satellite-based remote sensing tools to help improve forest management, and they’re studying the application of genomics in everything from disease control to breeding new trees. We’ve additionally invested in Canada’s Forest Services’ infrastructure, important new physical space to fight the spruce budworm in Quebec and in New Brunswick.
I was just recently in Saint John and Fredericton and made the observation that more scientific space was needed for young scientists in the forest sector to do their important work, particularly in this area.
Finally, engaging First Nation communities. Accompanying all these efforts at transforming the sector, is needed to engage First Nations communities. We saw and heard loud and clear yesterday in our Ontario panels the new and emerging and exciting opportunities that they recognize, the general consensus, and importantly, their position that organizations like Greenpeace don’t speak for them. First Nations are interested in the same things that we are: sustainable forest management and economic opportunities that create jobs and growth and prosperity for their communities. Have I said that before here today?
Ladies and gentlemen, Canada’s forest sector is one of the biggest employers for First Nations people. It employs over 9,000 First Nations workers. We need to continue at all levels of government to focus on a range of opportunities for business development, capacity building to training and employment that create opportunities for First Nations communities to fully engage and benefit from the forest sector.
Since 2011, our Aboriginal Forestry Initiative has invested more than $10 million in 50 projects in more than 103 communities, creating new businesses, training new workers and opening new opportunities for Aboriginal entrepreneurs. And in many instances, there are some exciting opportunities by my provincial counterparts — many of them who are here today — focused on the same things.
Our efforts are bearing fruit. So we are providing significant support for transformation across the full spectrum — environmental performance, new technology, commercialization, diversifying markets, and engaging Aboriginal communities. These efforts are bearing fruit, but there’s more work to be done. It’s our shared commitment to environmental sustainability, for example, being reflected in data showing Canada’s forest products industry has the best environmental reputation in the world.
Our efforts to open new markets have resulted in an increase in the value of wood product exports to China by — wait for it — more than 1,000 percent since 2007. About one-quarter of B.C. softwood lumber is now sold to China — something that would have been unthinkable just a decade ago. In Japan, approximately 14 percent of the housing market is now wood-frame building — something that simply didn’t exist before Canada started promoting wood construction there.
Challenges remain. So when it comes to transforming Canada’s forest sector, we have just begun. As this summit makes clear, we still have real challenges that we must transform into opportunities. Already today, we have discussed the need to develop new products and explore new business models and enter new markets. Above all, we’ve heard the need to innovate across the sector, beyond the sector and across this great country.
This brings us to the Kenora Declaration on Forest Innovation. This is an important document for us all to move forward on. That message has not only been heard, it’s been captured in the declaration from today’s summit. The forest sector leaders that are here today, whether from governments, industry or research organizations, have acknowledged the outstanding collective efforts that brought us through challenging times while emphasizing the work that we will have to do.
This joint declaration points to the importance of innovation in business lines, products, markets, partnerships — and yes, government policy. They are the key to future progress.
The Declaration is an important step forward, and it will serve as a guide to future actions.
So, let’s talk about sustainable forest management, something that’s been on our minds for most of this summer. Before I close, I want to talk about Canada’s record on sustainable management of its forests.
Now, I’m preaching to the converted here, but there are some media folks here too, and they need to hear how, more than ever, we are united in our efforts to talk about — to boast about — Canada’s sustainable forests. As you know, there are a lot of myths out there — myths that could promote and prompt buyers to go to other sources for their wood products, costing Canadian jobs and opportunities.
I always like to tell people when I’m talking the oil and gas sector, but more so the forest sector, that some of our fiercest opposition come from a position of strength. They’re a healthy lot as they operate, in many instances, on a fact-free diet. Friends, it’s time to stand up for our environmental reputation and take credit for the progress we’ve made. The best way to counter myths is with facts.
So here they are. Canada has over 160 million hectares of forests that are managed under the stringent rules of locally recognized certification systems. That’s more than 43 percent of all of the certified forests on the planet — by far the largest areas of certified forests in the world. The United Nations has reported that our rate of deforestation is virtually zero, and it’s been virtually zero for more than two decades. That’s quite an achievement. We protect about 24 million hectares of forest to support wildlife habitat.
Ladies and gentlemen, we are armed with intelligence, with unity, and most importantly, collectively, the facts. And it is time that we started to push back on those who would detract from the economic opportunity and the great world-class reputation that Canada has as a sustainable forest country. Let’s hear it for us.
I’m asking everyone here to tell that story again and again — because it works. And I’m just going to go off script to tell you how it can work.
Obviously, there have been a lot of discussions around pipelines. And for some time now, I have engaged in a disciplined exercise to similarly talk about Canada’s pipeline safety record. It is 99.999 percent safe for more than 72,000 kilometres of federally regulated pipeline. And in a conversation with someone who was stridently opposed to developing energy infrastructure, for the first time in the debate with this person, I simply said to her, “We’ve always had fair discussions, but I’m not sure I’ve actually asked you for a frame of reference as to what Canada’s record is when it comes to pipeline safety.” And she said, “(Sigh), Greg, look, I know pipelines are 99.999 percent safe, but.”
What was important for me is that she got a message that we had disciplined and repeated over and over and over again. So, at our corporate conferences, at intergovernmental conferences, at consortia with academia, it’s time for us not just to say it, but to say it over and over and over again.
Folks, it may be typically un-Canadian to boast, but we need to break through those traditional notions and tell the world, tell people right here in our own country who might take away or detract from the important work that we’re doing with respect to sustainably managed forests and environmental protection. We know, in fairness, and credit where credit is due, many of the provinces have taken the lead in this because they have jurisdiction over forests. So we give full credit to them. But I ask you all to join me, armed with facts, armed with science and armed with a passion and an understanding of what we can achieve environmentally and economically for the forests.
I’m going to stop there, ladies and gentlemen, because I’m standing between you and your lunch. I want to thank you for the important contributions that you have made, not just to this summit, not just to our contemplations tomorrow at the Canadian Council of Forestry Ministers’ important discussions, but for the work that you do day in and day out to champion all aspects of the forest sector. We’re collaborating, engaging others in our efforts and mobilizing our talent and technology, I’m more convinced than ever that Canada’s forest industry has the best yet to come.
So thank you, ladies and gentlemen. And for my part, my name is Greg Rickford. I’m the Member of Parliament for the great Kenora riding. It’s a privilege and an honour to serve my constituents, and in my capacity as the Minister of Natural Resources of Canada, to serve you too.
Thank you. Merci beaucoup.
