Forest Products Industry Urges Government to Learn from its Experience
February 27 2007, Ottawa, ON
The Forest Products Association of Canada (FPAC) today called on the federal government to recognize three policy imperatives essential for keeping jobs in Canada while reducing greenhouse gas emissions. Since 1990, FPAC members have not only reduced their greenhouse gas emissions by 44% (7 times Kyoto baseline targets), they have done so while increasing production by 20%, improving intensity per tonne of output by 54%, improving air quality by 60%, and they are ready to do more with the creation of intelligent regulations and a tax regime that supports industry re-tooling. FPAC made the comments during its appearance before the House of Commons Legislative Committee on Bill C-30, the Clean Air Act.
“Our members are committed to ensuring that their operations have the lightest possible impact on the planet,” said Avrim Lazar, President and CEO of FPAC. “That’s why we did not wait to be regulated but moved ahead on sustainability issues such as climate change and clean air because they made sense from both an environmental and a competitiveness perspective.”
Over the past decade, Canada’s forest products industry has invested over $8 billion in facility upgrades and innovative processes in a continued effort to re-tool to improve its environmental performance. By switching from fossil fuels to biomass, a clean, green carbon-neutral energy source derived from industry by-products such as bark, sawdust and wood shavings, the industry has reduced its fossil-fuel dependence to the point where 60% of the pulp and paper sector’s energy needs are self-generated from renewable sources. The sector is now the largest industrial source of cogeneration (combined heat and power capacity) in Canada, which is largely powered by carbon-neutral renewable biomass.
“Today, we are calling on Parliamentarians to recognize three policy imperatives,” continued Lazar. “First, governments must continue to recognize reductions since the 1990 base year when setting targets so as not to penalize those industries that acted early to reduce their emissions. Failure to do so sends a message to good corporate citizens that environmental responsibility is not recognized and is indeed penalized by making it more advantageous to wait for regulation.”
“Second, the only way to meet the dual objective of reducing emissions while keeping jobs in Canada is to accelerate capital renewal to speed the re-tooling of industry. An excellent place to start would be with the tax system,” added Lazar. “Finally, a cap and trade system, combined with a broadly-based offsets system, will inevitably produce the least-cost environmental solutions for reducing emissions and stimulate the creativity of the marketplace rather than depend on cumbersome, prescriptive regulation.”
FPAC is the voice of Canada’s wood, pulp and paper producers nationally and internationally in government, trade and environmental affairs. Canada’s forest industry represents 3% of Canada’s GDP and exports over $40 billion of wood, pulp and paper annually. The industry is one of Canada’s largest employers, operating in hundreds of Canadian communities and providing nearly 900,000 direct and indirect jobs across the country.
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For more information, contact:
Isabelle Des Chênes
Director, Communications
Forest Products Association of Canada
(613) 563-1441 ext: 323
ideschenes@fpac.ca
