Thank you, Mr. Chair and members of the committee, for this opportunity to speak to you today.
On behalf of the Federation of Canadian Municipalities, I am pleased to contribute a municipal perspective on urban conservation practices as you consider a national conservation plan.
We have been the national voice of municipal governments since 1901. We represent nearly 2,000 municipal governments which, in turn, represent more than 90% of Canada's population. Local governments share stewardship of the environment with other orders of government. Municipalities designate local parks, protect the urban tree canopy, local lakes and rivers, and ensure that Canadians can continue to rely on the environmental, social, and economic benefits of these spaces.
Urban forests are hugely beneficial to communities. They keep neighbourhoods cool, improve air quality, provide wildlife habitat, remove CO2 from the atmosphere, retain stormwater runoff, and prevent erosion. Urban forests also add esthetic, recreational, and economic value to communities, all of which enhance the quality of life. In 2011, Oakville valued these benefits at $2.1 million annually, and Peel Region at $22.7 million annually.
Canada's urban forests face significant threats from invasive pest species such as the emerald ash borer and the mountain pine beetle, as well as climate change, which supports the expansion of invasive species, or in some communities leads to conditions such as drought which kills trees. Municipalities bear the high costs of managing these challenges, although the problem is national. The emerald ash borer illustrates the conservation challenges and costs faced by municipalities.
First identified in Canada in 2002 in the city of Windsor, the emerald ash borer has spread into many parts of southern Ontario and Quebec and is expected to soon hit Manitoba. The emerald ash borer will cost Canadians over $2 billion in treatment and replanting activities. The city of Kitchener estimates the cost of $10.4 million to eradicate the emerald ash borer, $7.5 million of which would need to be spent within the next five years. Toronto's emerald ash borer management plan was estimated to be $1.14 million in 2011. Toronto is spending $7 million per year in preventive treatment of trees.
Climate change is creating in Canada a warmer and, in some areas, a drier climate, which adds to the challenge of managing urban forests. The mountain pine beetle has decimated millions of acres of B.C. forests and has now spread to Alberta and Saskatchewan, partly because of successive dry summers and mild winters. Communities such as Prince George, B.C. have seen parks completely decimated, negatively impacting property values and creating high management costs. Between 2005 and 2011, the city spent over $9.52 million operating its mountain pine beetle and community wildfire protection programs.
Other urban canopies face different climate problems. In the city of Edmonton over the last decade, an average of 43,000 trees have died annually due to drought conditions, compared to previous annual loss rates of 600 to 900 trees. Despite spending millions of dollars, Edmonton has been unable to keep pace with tree losses. Edmonton's urban forest management plan is helping the municipality manage their canopy, but significant adaptation costs remain.
The federal government plays an important role in addressing this problem, from both statutory and economic perspectives.
The Canadian Food Inspection Agency is mandated to prevent the importation, exportation, and spread of plant pests under the Plant Protection Act. Under this act the Canadian Food Inspection Agency can place restrictions or prohibitions on items that may enable the transport of forest pests, and designate quarantine zones, or areas or zones free of specific tree species.
Although municipalities have incurred high costs to comply with these federal orders, no compensation has been provided to municipalities. These federal orders are designed to slow infestation across the region and provincial borders rather than limit infestation to the affected municipality. This means that any compliance costs incurred by infected municipalities are borne for the benefit of the country as a whole.
In terms of financial support, the now defunct Environment Canada invasive alien species partnership program enabled municipalities to apply for funds to control and eradicate forest pests. Between 2005 and 2012, $5.7 million of the invasive alien species partnership program was allocated to the control of pests, and $85 million of that budget was allocated to 170 projects focused on preventing, detecting, and managing invasive alien species. The maximum request for funding under the program was $50,000, too small to have much of an effect compared with the millions spent annually by communities. The funding for the invasive alien species partnership program was terminated as of March 31, 2012.
Short on effective funding, the program also had structural inefficiency. For example, in the context of B.C.'s mountain pine beetle infestation, uncertainties about the definition of invasive species made communities struggling with this pest ineligible for the funds. This, in turn, led to an insufficient response and continued propagation into Alberta and Saskatchewan. Although Prince George and others were able to access other federal programs, such as the two-year community adjustment fund, it also ended in 2011, while the problem persists.
This brings me to solutions.
Municipalities are doing their part to implement a range of strategies to protect the health of urban forests. However, threats to urban forests are often beyond the control of local and even provincial and territorial governments. There is an important role for the federal government to play, and we have some recommendations.
Our first recommendation is to make partnerships between all orders of government official policy with respect to urban forest management, including climate change and forest pests, across municipal, provincial, and territorial borders. Partnerships between all orders of government on strategies to contain forest pests, adapt to climate change, and other forestry initiatives will lead to the best outcomes for Canadians.
The second recommendation is that the government should take a leadership role in urban forestry through a broadened research mandate. Neither the federal nor the provincial governments currently include urban forestry in their mandates, except for a limited role with respect to exotic invasive pests. Other jurisdictions, such as the United States Forest Service and the European Urban Forestry Research and Information Centre, include urban forestry as a program and research area. With climate change and other stresses expected to play a greater role, this work will be important in enabling communities across the country to adapt to future risks.
Our third recommendation is that the government provide financial support to combat urban forest threats of a national scope.
The cost of managing the impacts of invasive pests and climate change on urban forests is in the billions of dollars. The government should establish funding assistance to municipalities for the control and management of species, such as the emerald ash borer, and any future significant diseases and insects. The government should also create and fund programs designed to support the ongoing sustainable management of urban forests.
Thank you very much.