Pledge for two billion trees sparse on details

PM CLIMATE PLAN

OTTAWA • The Conservatives’ environment critic says almost two years after promising to plant two billion trees within a decade, the Liberals have provided little in the way of detail on how that will actually get done.

Prime Minister Justin Trudeau promised in the 2019 campaign as part of his climate platform to plant two billion trees by 2030, which amounts to an extra 200 million trees per year.

To reach that goal over a decade, around 33 million trees would have to go into the ground each month in a tree-planting season and in nine years that number grows to about 37 million trees.

“We’re two years into that commitment, almost two years into it, and they’re still acting like they still have another 10 years,” said Conservative environment critic Dan Albas.

Planting didn’t happen in 2020 and this year, the government put a call out for projects that could start this spring, after Natural Resources Minister Seamus O’regan announced it would spend $3 billion on the program.

That’s about $2.78 billion less than what the parliamentary budget office suggests such an endeavour could cost.

A spokesman for O’regan said the department sought out experienced tree-planting organizations that had land and more than 5,000 extra trees secured “to take advantage of the fast-approaching window of opportunity for tree planting.”

“The first trees will be in the ground this spring,” Ian Cameron wrote in a statement, saying more than 120 applications were received and agreements could be signed by May.

Just how many of those trees will go into the ground this season will be released soon, according to Natural Resources Canada.

The department said contracts are being finalized and that process is confidential, but Canadians can expect to get an update on the pledge.

The Western Forestry Contractors’ Association, an advocacy group for seedling nurseries, consulting foresters and tree planting contractors in Alberta, British Columbia and Ontario, said some of its members were able to pull together sites, funds and seedlings to plant around 2.3 million trees in B.C.

When it comes to the promise, executive director John Betts said the message to both the federal and provincial governments is that industry is willing to do what it takes to get extra nursery space, expand its labour force to meet demand, so long as volume remains steady.

“We don’t want any ups and downs,” he said.

The Forest Products Association of Canada said it offered advice to the Liberal government in developing the program that it should look to those in forestry, conservation as well as Indigenous groups who have experience with planting.