By David Lindsay
With the federal election now behind us, the new Prime Minister can, and must, promote the economy and the environment in the first few weeks of his mandate.
The foundation for both future economic stability and environmental sustainability will be laid for decades to come based on two significant global initiatives – the Trans-Pacific Partnership (TPP) and the United Nations Climate Change Conference in Paris.
As the representative of an industry that supports 230,000 well-paid jobs across Canada, the Forest Products Association of Canada (FPAC) fully understands that economic and environmental policies are inextricably linked and cannot be viewed in isolation.
Giving legislative approval to the TPP will give our industry an historic opportunity to further improve access to rapidly growing markets in the Asia Pacific region. Free trade in forest products will help the forest sector reach its ambitious Vision2020 goals of generating an additional $20 billion in economic activity and refreshing the workforce with 60,000 new recruits.
However, the TPP has the potential to do much more than that. It also gives us the opportunity to sell our green and sustainable forest products in more countries.
Pending an international agreement on climate that may come out of the upcoming UN Climate Conference, our industry is well positioned to gain a competitive advantage by leveraging our world-leading sustainability practices and developing Canada’s reputation as a global leader on climate change.
Canada’s forest products industry is working hard to be part of the solution to the climate challenge. Our vast renewable forests absorb the carbon dioxide (CO2) that causes climate change and this role of sequestering carbon continues in wood products.
The sector has also reduced its dependence on fossil fuels, as pulp and paper mills have cut greenhouse gas emissions by 65 per cent since 1990.
Overall, we feel that Canada’s forest products industry is leading the world in its green practices. For example, we have more than 160 million hectares of forests independently certified to follow progressive social and environmental practices (that’s four times more than any other country).
Canada’s forest sector has also pledged to be carbon-neutral. At the same time, we are constantly developing new products for the growing bio-economy by extracting more value from each and every tree we harvest responsibly.
FPAC wants to continue working in partnership with government to transform, innovate and produce ground-breaking products that will allow Canada’s forest sector to compete and be a global leader in the sustainable resource industry.
Canada’s forest products industry has come a long way in recent years. As the world embraces more free trade as well as a low carbon economy, the forest sector has become well positioned to help our country reach both its environmental and goals – no industry in Canada is more committed to growing a greener tomorrow.
David Lindsay is the president and CEO of the Forest Products Association of Canada.
