Environment Committee on Oct. 24th, 2012

[The Chair, Conservative, Mark Warawa]

Thank you. Time has expired.

Mr. Pilon, you have seven minutes.

[François Pilon, NDP, Laval—Les Îles, QC]

Thank you, Mr. Chair.

I would like to congratulate all of you on your presentations. They were very interesting.

My first question is for Mr. Rosen. You recently held your 10th Canadian Urban Forest Conference, and you have planted 70 million trees over the last 20 years. Congratulations! In a context where urban green spaces are in decline, where real estate development is expanding, your organization is of capital importance.

Could you tell us how, in your opinion, an urban conservation plan would make your task easier, and which measures would help organizations such as yours?

[Michael Rosen]

That is a good question, even though it is a bit complicated.

Historically, our mission has been to plant trees. Our programs, basically, are geared towards tree planting. In the 1990s, in particular, we started to plant many trees in urban areas. As you noted, the conservation of existing forests is very important. Of course, it is municipal regulations that encourage the protection of urban woods.

A municipality that favours growing trees is what has helped us the most. Some municipalities favour growing trees and others have policies with regard to trees. They don't all have similar policies. That is why, in my presentation, I spoke of the necessity of having a national presence.

The current problem is that all municipalities are completely isolated from technology and programs that would help them to improve their urban forests. It is sad to note that we are the only organization that can offer reforesting programs in urban areas. Municipalities need much more than that.

As Mr. Cullen said, there is a significant decline in the number of trees in cities. We don't see it, because it takes a great deal of time. After living for about 80 years, over time, one realizes that municipalities have fewer trees. It is not because they don't like trees, it is because there was negligence, if you will, and planning and reforestation in urban areas have not been respected. Municipalities are asking more and more for national leadership with regard to urban forests.

[François Pilon, NDP, Laval—Les Îles, QC]

Thank you.

My second question is for Mr. Cullen. Along the same lines, one of the goals of your organization is to double the urban tree presence in Canadian urban centres. How would an urban conservation plan help your organization or a coalition such as yours?

[Mark Cullen]

How can the federal government help to double the urban tree canopy in the urban centres across the country? The answer would be to engage with the not-for-profits that are currently committed to this goal, to work with them and partner with the other levels of government that are also interested in making this happen. Most of the funding for municipal replanting comes from—correct me if I'm wrong—the municipal level. They need help.

Every city, every village, every town, every councillor, and every mayor that I talk to say the same thing. I was here in Ottawa for the AMO, the Association of Municipalities of Ontario, conference back in August, and I spoke to hundreds of them. They all said the same thing. They don't have money to plant more trees or to protect heritage trees. Frankly, it's not just about money. It's about the resources that exist in each of the ministries of the federal government, including Environment Canada. You have all kinds of interesting things going on. Resources could be marshalled around the cause of doubling the urban tree canopy, without necessarily having to find new money.

I'd be happy to help you put some creative thinking behind what that actually means. I can't give you a specific answer to the question. It's a very good question, and I hope that we continue this discussion.

[François Pilon, NDP, Laval—Les Îles, QC]

I would like that as well. In the municipality in which I live, there is a tree management plan. One must obtain permission to cut a tree, but there is no requirement to replant one once it is cut. I would like to discuss that with you.

I only have a minute and a half left.

I am now addressing the representatives of the City of Calgary. You developed an urban ecological sustainability plan called the

the imagine Calgary plan for long range urban sustainability.

Could you quickly inventory the means and strategies you intend to use in order to attain the goals of that plan?

[Chris Manderson]

Certainly. The imagine Calgary plan, which I mentioned it briefly in my talk, was based on a consultation. It was the biggest consultation with Calgarians that we had ever done. Some 18,000 citizens participated. It was very broad-based. It was based initially on the Melbourne sustainability principles for cities, which looked at that whole issue of balancing economic, social, and environmental issues in figuring out how you were going to grow a city.

There was a series of questions that we put to Calgarians. We asked people to look forward 100 years. The reason we chose 100 years is that it would take you beyond your own lifetime, or at least most of us wouldn't go beyond that. You're able to take your personal stake in the future out and think about what you want to leave for future generations. We looked at issues related to environment, fiscal stability, governance, accountability, those sorts of things. A whole number of visions and directions came out of that.

We took that and we said that would be a core element of how the city would govern itself. The next step was a 60-year plan. The 60-year plan is our statutory municipal development plan. That plan guides how we're going to grow. We've elected to incorporate, for example, key environmental principles into the growth of the city itself, a more dense urban form, more conservation and biodiversity, things like that. From there, we've cascaded plans down. We're doing 30-year and 10-year plans, as a result, in all business units throughout the city.

[The Chair, Conservative, Mark Warawa]

Thank you very much.

Ms. Rempel, you have seven minutes.

[Michelle Rempel, Conservative, Calgary Centre-North, AB]

Thank you, Mr. Chair.

I'd like to start my questioning with a comment for Ms. Dobbie.

Several years ago during your term as an MP, you visited an elementary school in your riding, and you talked about how young women could run in politics. You have a woman sitting in front of you right now who sat in that class, who since has been elected to politics, and believes the principle that it just takes someone to show that it can be done. I just wanted to thank you for your contribution to our country.

[Voices]

Hear, hear!

[Michelle Rempel, Conservative, Calgary Centre-North, AB]

Moving on, I want to direct some of my questions to the team from the City of Calgary because I represent a Calgary riding. We have a unique challenge in our city in that it's very fast growing. We've seen an enormous expansion in population over the last decade especially. We're under extreme pressures to expand the city beyond its needs. When we talk about infrastructure in the city, it's not just about roads or hospitals and whatnot; the dialogue is also about how we attract people to the city and retain them. Labour is one of our determinants of growth. How do we make the city sustainable in the long term as well? As you said, and certainly I hear this from my constituents, it is something that is important to them.

You touched upon some of the uniqueness of the City of Calgary's management plan when it comes to urban conservation. I can't remember the exact title of it, but it's the wetland conservation plan and some of the other frameworks you have.

Could either of you speak very briefly to some of the challenges you faced in developing them and then speak to some of the challenges you face in implementation, in the context of best practice? I know you have achieved some measurable results over the last few years and it has been very well integrated into the planning process. For the committee's edification, maybe you could speak to how you developed that, any challenges that you face, and any ongoing challenges there may be in implementation.

[Chris Manderson]

Certainly. I'll talk specifically about the wetlands conservation plan just to keep within the time limits. You're right, in that we're projected to grow by about 28% in the next 20 years. Infrastructure and sustainability are big issues for us. We do know that if we build the city smarter, we'll ultimately be saving some money.

From a strict conservation point of view, and by that I mean identifying what's important and working with that within the context of development, we work within the confines of what the legislation, the provincial Municipal Government Act, allows us to do. The ability to protect, identify, and conserve wetlands, for example, is covered by, I think, 69 words in the Municipal Government Act itself, which talks about protection of ravines, gullies, swamps, and coolies, land that could be flooded or is otherwise unstable. When you look at what that really talks about, it's saying this is land you shouldn't build on because it's not a good idea.

As a municipality, and there are several in Alberta that do this, we've had to work quite creatively with our partners provincially and federally to determine: What's important about these areas? What's important about wetlands and riparian areas? How do we take that nub of an idea within the legislation and apply it to some broader ecological goals? You have to know who you're working with and you have to be creative in how you apply a fairly small piece of legislation.

[Michelle Rempel, Conservative, Calgary Centre-North, AB]

Great.

Ms. Charlton, did you have a comment?

[Anne Charlton]

I’ll add that I dabble a little in the municipal politics level because of my interface with the aldermen, and frankly, political direction is huge. The ability to understand that, even if you are very interested in transit, transit is about livability. People walk to transit. You want walkability as well as that transit.

Everything that these gentlemen said about what trees add to a city, you could take the next step and say that parks add to a city. Whether you are walking on a green street to go to transit, whether you are changing the fabric of a playground that you take your kids to, whether there is shade and sun, the political direction at every level is very important.

[Michelle Rempel, Conservative, Calgary Centre-North, AB]

Thank you.

I'll open it up to the three at the end of the table on my right with a quick question regarding trees.

Mr. Cullen, I think you made a statement about how it costs less to save a tree than it does to cut it down. Could you talk about what saving a tree entails exactly?

Do any of you at the table have an understanding of best practice programs to implement, large scale, either identification of problems or guidance for the committee on some recommendations we could make to support an initiative such as that?

[Mark Cullen]

My comments were specifically targeted to the emerald ash borer that is attacking all three native ash species in Ontario and Quebec. You need to be aware of it because the chances of it moving west are very good. Whether it will or not, I don't know, but we do know that it's taking every ash in its path.

The emerald ash borer can be treated with a biological treatment called TreeAzin. TreeAzin is not a chemical. It's derived from a tropical tree called the neem tree. Three or four applications cost less than what it costs to cut down and replace a mature ash tree.

One needs to qualify that a little bit. Not every ash is worth saving. I'd be the first to say that. But we're not saving nearly as many ash as we could. We have this product that was developed in Canada, partly with federal government funds, by the way. It's made in Canada and it works. It has proven efficacy, yet we're allowing valuable ash trees to die. It's costing us more to dispose of them and replant them than it would if we just saved them.

[Michelle Rempel, Conservative, Calgary Centre-North, AB]

Go ahead, Ms. Dobbie.

[Dorothy Dobbie]

I have one comment to add. This really does have a bearing on what the federal government can do. In the infrastructure agreements signed from time to time, trees are not mentioned. It's always about the cement, the sidewalks, the bridges, and the roads. It takes an awful lot longer to grow a tree or to replace a tree than it does to build any of those hard features.

[Michelle Rempel, Conservative, Calgary Centre-North, AB]

Great.

Mr. Rosen, go ahead.

[Dorothy Dobbie]

By the way, thank you for your comments.

[Michael Rosen]

The only comment I'd like to add is that it really does start at the top. I think the government's policies and direction are very important to municipalities. At present, you have the infrastructure in place. There is Natural Resources Canada. There is the Canadian Forest Service. But neither of these organizations reflects the trees that grow in cities and towns. They are very much involved with what I would call the industrial forest.

I think I'll share our feelings here. We think it's a missed opportunity, especially when over 80% of Canadians are now living in cities. There are researchers and programs, but none of them seems to be directed towards the trees in the city.

My feeling is that things would be greatly improved by directing existing resources in a slightly different direction.

[The Chair, Conservative, Mark Warawa]

Thank you very much. Your time has expired.

Ms. Duncan, you have seven minutes.

[Kirsty Duncan, Liberal, Etobicoke North, ON]

Thank you, Mr. Chair, and thank you to all the witnesses for your time and for your expertise.

Mr. Rosen, you talked about a national urban forestry strategy. I wonder if you've given some thought to, or if there has been, consultation with stakeholders. If you could make recommendations to this committee, what would they be?

[Michael Rosen]

An urban forest strategy, in fact, aligns with best management practices, so it's a Canadian version of what the challenges and possible solutions are to improving our urban forest, making sure they're not going into decline, as Mark has discussed. It has to do with things like how to promote good inventories of trees, what the best management practices to maintaining trees are, and what communities need for educational things to encourage individuals to protect trees.

We don't realize it, but the large majority of urban forest is actually in private ownership. The trees that you see along city streets do not show the whole picture. You're seeing maybe 20% to 30% of the urban forest. The other urban forest is sitting in those mall parking lots and in people's backyards and front yards. To get to those people, you need a major educational program.

The other piece of an urban forest strategy for the nation is around our educational institutions. At the post-secondary school level, not a lot of universities or colleges have urban forests as one of their core programs.

[Kirsty Duncan, Liberal, Etobicoke North, ON]

Thanks, Mr. Rosen. I'll ask Mr. Cullen if he would like to add to that. If not, I know you talked about doubling the tree canopy and I'm wondering if you would like to make some specific recommendations to this committee about that.