"We have all the pieces of the puzzle"

Looks like there is an important part missing. Marketing.

Who needs what, where and when? Who are current suppliers? Can we be competitive? How?

Good questions Gus. They are not answered in the document as far as I can see. Almost everything they are suggesting that we do, is now being done somewhere else, so the questions of current suppliers, transportation and logistics, etc become key.

One will have to wait and see what comes of this, in any event it will take some time.

While the Minister's optimism is to commended, there is a huge piece of the puzzle that's missing right now, and according to all the pundits, for the next couple of years.

There's no market for anything now. If we can't sell anything that is made, then it's not smart to do much right now, but hunker down and conserve wealth.

Where would this Wood Enterprize Centre be built? Kelowna...Surrey

A bit off the mark, but there struggling to find a place to build a high security prison in the lower mainland. Hey, if they don't want it, we will take it. We're gonna end up with the homeless, we might as well get the prisoners as well.

Build a new prison and provide good paying jobs for the citizens.

I'm buying a pellet stove.

A few years ago I would have (did) laugh at the idea, but pellet supply is reasonable and cheap, and the technology is proven.

By definition the future is something that needs to be developed and made. The idea is to look into the future and make something for it.

And the more people that buy the pellet stove and pellets the more it will cost. Like everything else, as soon as people are hooked the cost raises 200%.
I do have a question though, can you put one (pellet stove) in an existing natural gas fire place spot?

Right on He speaks I agree, you can get a few thousand spin-off jobs out of a maximum security prison. There are sure not a shortage of criminals in this province. It may also be a good deterant to commit a crime when they find out their doing the time in smelly P.G. instead of warm nicey lower mainland. We've lost all our manufacturing jobs to China, just check out JSK all that wood product used to made here and Canada. Now it is not. Oh well the less I make the less tax I will pay. In my opinion.

The Wood Enterprise Centre will be built here. Forintek already exists at UBC. UBC and UNBC have partnered on a few things. I would not be surprised if this were something else they could partner on.

UNBC has a good reputation in the area of research, be it ever so humble. This is where the bulk of the tress are grown. This is where the MBP are. This is where not only product research can be accomplished, but also woodland based research coupled with product research.

Part of the answer needs to go beyond timber and pulp use of the fibre. Carbon black as mentioned in the report is one. Pharmaceuticals is not mentioned in the report, but may also be worthwhile exploring.

There are many reasons beyond the primary purpose of the centre for the centre to be built here. The spin off effects here are much higher than in the lower mainland and in Kelowna. Kelowna has its own industry which will keep it going for at least 2 more decades, by which time they will have further developed their population to a size which will allow them to be almost self sufficient. We have not reached that point yet. A bit of a bump in the road and we are weaving all over the place again.

"JSK all that wood product used to made here and Canada"

Never. Check out the designs. Never made in Canada. Canadian furniture is designed like someone's grandmother designed them.

Sometimes it takes a great disaster to make those in government realise how off track we are. All these new initatives are good but there is still a long way to go to reverse what has been at work for several decades.

We didn't just end up here with the type of industry structure we now have. It was directed from all quarters to be what it is. The types of operations which would have been able to provide the diversity were not supposed to establish or survive.

Government achieved this coordinated big business only result, believing that through each political chapter,the political benefits warranted this "all eggs in one basket" approach.

Our basket fell and hard to say how many eggs will be saved but at least there seems to be a little acknowledgment that changes are needed.

I do not believe that our BC government realises just how much more is needed to actually provide/allow/promote these new initiatives into reality. To make profitable and sustainable and appealing to entrepreneurs to invest in what has
been essentially made impossible by government. This is not a simple matter of tweaking existing legislation or policy. It is a matter of starting from scratch realising the world as it is today and what must be achieved in the future....

AND most importantly it must be done for the public's best interests short and long term rather than for simple corporate only benefit.

A good start would be to convert all existing BC forest legislation into biofuel.