From hindsight to foresight

The Canadian forest sector is facing a time of significant transformation. The strategic planning challenges will be manifold and include the consideration of trade, financial and consumer markets, employment, taxation, investments, technological challenges, and so forth. In this brief we argue that regulatory analysis and foresight is also an essential component of the successful transformation of the forest sector. Increasingly, governments interpret the concept of regulation broadly and no longer equate it with a narrow legalistic or command-and-control approach. It is thus meaningful to interpret the term broadly and consider both high level issues such as policy instrument choice and specialized topics such as scientific assessments of risks or the implementation of regulations.