With the global economy emerging from the depths of recession, Vancouver Island is coping with change, but where there's change there's opportunity, according to speakers at the Vancouver Island Economic Alliance's state of the Island economic summit.

From a forest industry in crisis to the boundless opportunity afforded by B.C. hosting the Olympics in February, the summit heard that the Island is in good position to reap the benefits when the economic storm has passed.

"There is an amazing opportunity as we come out of this," Bob Rennie, a Vancouver-based real estate marketing expert and principal of Rennie Marketing Services, said in his afternoon keynote address.

Rennie, who admits to being an optimist who looks for opportunity and positives in any scenario, said there are a number of factors in the Island's favour.

He noted the Olympics will shine a spotlight on the province as a whole, much brighter than that seen during Expo 86. The Island remains one of the most desirable places in the world to live, he said, and within a few years there will be investment dollars sitting in accounts collecting no interest and looking to do some good.

But make no mistake, Rennie said, times have changed.

He pointed to tighter credit markets, tougher financing guidelines for developers and a baby boomer demographic that's been burned over the past two years seeing its stock portfolios, pension funds and mutual funds hit hard and now unlikely to be as free with its spending.

"The positions you took in the economies of 2005, '06 and '07 are gone. Erase them, we are starting over," he said. "Everything's changed."

Forestry has certainly changed.

Once the lifeblood of the province and the mainstay of a string of small Island communities, the industry has been crippled by a series of blows -- the depressed U.S. housing market, a strong loonie, the softwood lumber dispute and generally poor world lumber markets.

Rick Jeffery, president of the Coast Forest Products Association, told the summit the industry is facing all of those challenges but preparing to take on the new reality.

"I wanted to let [the summit] know we are working on this stuff, we are innovating, we are working on the business environment, working on our markets and products," he said in an interview after his keynote address.

Jeffery, who said the industry is working at about 60 per cent capacity, also made the point that the industry is still driven by old-growth timber, and there remains a good supply of it on the Island -- the industry estimates there is at least 50 years' worth of wood, not counting protected areas and places loggers cannot work.

"I wanted them to understand there is no magic bullet that can just let us leave old growth and go to second growth," he said. "They need to know there is adequate supply of old growth out there. Meanwhile, we need to find out what to do with second growth so when we get to the end of old growth, we have backfilled with new product lines which also takes the pressure off old growth."

He touched on efforts to open up the Chinese market and expanding the Japanese one, but the overriding message was the industry is currently handcuffed until markets, especially the U.S., which now takes about 48 per cent of the coast's wood, rebound.

But rebounding and getting back to what is now considered normal could take a while, according to Tracy Redies, president and CEO of Coast Capital Savings who addressed the macroeconomic issues facing the Island during a panel discussion.

"We are in a period of slow growth over the next five to 10 years," she said, noting there is a long road to travel to make up for a massive drop in U.S. global consumption, which plays a massive role in the global economy, not to mention those of B.C. and the Island. "I think it will take that long for Chinese and Indian consumption to start to replace that from the U.S. It will not be made up easily."

Still, Redies sees a big upside for the Island and B.C.

"We have a competitive advantage that other countries don't," she said, noting the province attracts people from all over the world and from other parts of Canada, which has led to an educated and stable workforce.

Though with an aging population there is the sobering reality of a human-resources crunch on the horizon.

aduffy@tc.canwest.com