Public Accounts committee  We know that other countries have committed to planting incremental trees. We can provide some information on that to the committee, if you wish.

Public Accounts committee  I think all countries would find it challenging, as we do. It's a complex, long-term program. I don't think any of them are finished yet. They're all very recent. There aren't very many, though.

Public Accounts committee  There are a number of ways we're talking to provinces and territories about using the two billion tree funding to recover from fire. One is to replant in areas where the fire was so hot the forest won't come back naturally. Another is to help communities build firebreaks. Another would be to consider looking at things like species mix.

Public Accounts committee  The prices vary not necessarily on species but on how old the tree is, how long it has to grow in a nursery and how much the land needs to be prepared in advance. Yes, you can do a different species for that lower cost.

Public Accounts committee  It depends very much on the circumstances and on what will be planted and where. If it's a place where you have to do a lot of work to prepare the land to take in a tree, that will be more expensive. In terms of the $1.70, for some of the projects our contribution is still around a dollar or two dollars per tree.

Public Accounts committee  It's in the written instructions we have on the Internet, which are available for program applicants. It's in the program application guide. We can provide those to the committee if you wish.

Public Accounts committee  As Mr. Hargrove mentioned, if somebody is claiming in the compliance market, Environment Canada would know.

Public Accounts committee  It would take a number of years because a tree won't be valuable for offsets until it's grown almost to maturity, which means in some cases 20, 40 or 60 years.

Public Accounts committee  Not—

Public Accounts committee  It does include follow-up and monitoring and reporting throughout the life of the project. As I mentioned earlier, we're looking at different ways we can continue monitoring over the life of the trees, including with sensors and remote monitoring.

Public Accounts committee  We have some funding in the two billion trees program to look at capacity building and also to conduct science and research. One of the projects we've undertaken is to assess the survivability of seedlings that are distributed using drones, which might be a way to deal with labour shortages or with difficulties in accessing the sites where our partners would want to plant.

Public Accounts committee  Yes, absolutely. We launched an ongoing call for proposals, which means that we get proposals at any time from anyone who wants to put in a proposal for planting. It allows us to be a bit more nimble and faster in responding to proponents. Having calls for proposals at defined times was creating a false cycle that didn't allow us to be as nimble as we wanted to be.

Public Accounts committee  I think we need a point of clarification. When Deputy Minister Vandergrift was talking about habitat restoration, he was talking about the extra costs you have to put in to prepare space to restore habitat for species at risk.

Public Accounts committee  On the other hand, there are all kinds of ways we get at quality for biodiversity and for habitat generally, whether it's species at risk or not, including expert review panels, making sure they get—

Public Accounts committee  We don't yet, although we are very far along in our conversations with New Brunswick. You are absolutely right. One of the issues is that provinces already do a significant amount of planning, and they already have expertise. They do that as business as usual. What we're seeking is two billion trees in order to achieve all the objectives of the program.