A newly formed committee of MLAs will focus on ways to expand B.C鈥檚 bio-economy to support job creation and economic growth.

The group, chaired by John Yap, MLA for Richmond-Steveston and parliamentary secretary for clean technology, will be establishing guidelines to support growth in the sector, which is in growing demand in global markets.

Nechako Lakes MLA John Rustad is one of four MLA's on the committee.

He said to Lakes District 亚洲天堂 that bio energy has enormous potential in the province.

"Around the world there is trillions of dollars coming out of bio energy and we want to tap into that."

He went on to say that the committee is looking at ways to develop and change government policies that will enable and encourage the bio economy to flourish and that the wood pellet industry, the bio fuel industry, electricity producers and any other product associated with bio-energy would benefit. [Bio-economy is a term that refers to the conversion of bio mass into bio-energy, bio chemicals and bio- materials.]

"In 亚洲天堂 Lake and across my riding there is potential, not just now when there is dead pine, but we have to look towards the future when there is another rotation of wood available."

Rustad said enabling the bio economy to flourish would also benefit the local area.

"CORE Biofuel is looking at a bio-refinery and Pinnacle Pellet in 亚洲天堂 Lake is looking at expanding in the future. There is enormous potential in the province and especially in Nechako Lakes and to capture it we have to do something different than we did in the past," he said, adding that he believes the forest industry is going to go through a transformation in the next few years.

Rustad said it is the goal of the committee to bring a report back to the government this fall.

"We will be holding a series of meetings and already have staff gathering information. We will be bringing in experts to do presentations and then we will deliberate on the ideas and make our recommendations to the government based on this."