Evidence of meeting #133 for Environment and Sustainable Development in the 42nd Parliament, 1st Session. (The original version is on Parliament’s site, as are the minutes.) The winning word was forests.
A recording is available from Parliament.
5:10 p.m.
Kootenay—Columbia, NDP
Six plus three is nine, but....
Sure, I'd like to continue, yes.
5:10 p.m.
Director, Economic Analysis Division, Canadian Forest Service, Department of Natural Resources
We have another program in the Canadian Forest Service and Natural Resources Canada that aims to spur commercialization of innovations and innovative technologies. It's called the investments in forest industry transformation program. Through this, we finance some projects aimed at.... Earlier we talked about better utilization of the fibre. The projects that IFIT has funded are aimed at converting these residues into something useful, including panels, for instance, and in particular other projects that include bioenergy. Often these residues are the harvest residues that are dirty. They can be used for that.
5:10 p.m.
Kootenay—Columbia, NDP
That was the investments in forest industry transformation fund.
5:10 p.m.
Director, Economic Analysis Division, Canadian Forest Service, Department of Natural Resources
Yes.
5:10 p.m.
Mr. John Aldag (Cloverdale—Langley City, Lib.)
Thank you.
Now we'll move over to Mr. Scarpaleggia.
November 22nd, 2018 / 5:10 p.m.
Liberal
Francis Scarpaleggia Liberal Lac-Saint-Louis, QC
Thank you very much, Mr. Chair.
This is a very interesting conversation. I'd like to bring the conversation back to the discussion of water and how water impacts GHG emissions from agriculture or forestry. I forget who discussed it, but there was talk before about how a runoff, which would carry fertilizer, would have an impact on greenhouse gas emissions, if I understood correctly, and that planting trees that are more water absorbent could mitigate that problem.
Could whoever answered that question previously elaborate on that?
5:10 p.m.
Director General, Innovation Programs Directorate, Programs Branch, Department of Agriculture and Agri-Food
I can't elaborate on the science, but I can elaborate on the program. As I was saying, we have a greenhouse gas program that addresses that from an agriculture perspective, from a systems perspective. We'll look at livestock systems, at cropping systems, at water-use efficiency, irrigation, etc., as well as agroforestry, the planting of trees in riparian zones and the impact that would have on....
What we'll end up doing through these studies is, as you've mentioned, looking at specific impacts on a nutrient runoff, but also soil erosion. We'll look at algae blooms and the impacts of nitrates on water systems, as well as soil health, all at the same time.
5:10 p.m.
Liberal
Francis Scarpaleggia Liberal Lac-Saint-Louis, QC
Does water carrying nitrates into larger bodies of water have an impact on greenhouse gas emissions?
5:15 p.m.
Director General, Innovation Programs Directorate, Programs Branch, Department of Agriculture and Agri-Food
Nitrates are a contributor to greenhouse gas.
5:15 p.m.
Liberal
Francis Scarpaleggia Liberal Lac-Saint-Louis, QC
Given that they're in a water stream, would they be released into the atmosphere? Is this the...? I don't want to get stuck on the science because I'm not a scientist either, but if anyone has any insight, please, I'd like to hear it. Then I'll move on to another topic.
5:15 p.m.
Director General, Innovation Programs Directorate, Programs Branch, Department of Agriculture and Agri-Food
From my understanding—and I'm not a scientist either—it's largely in the production of the nitrates that creates a greenhouse gas, so their use, like the use of carbon-based fuels, is the contributor to the greenhouse gases. How they are used on a farm and the demand for phosphates and nitrates are the contributors to greenhouse gases.
5:15 p.m.
Liberal
5:15 p.m.
Director General, Ontario - Quebec Region, Science and Technology Branch, Department of Agriculture and Agri-Food
Sorry, but I have just a point of clarification on that. One of the issues that I think is being studied.... I cannot tell you necessarily the results of those studies right now. With the water content of the soils, its actually the microbial communities that degrade some of the molecules that will actually create some of these emissions. The water content in those soils changes the ability of the microbial community to actually do a sort of chemical decomposition of certain things like fertilizers and probably emissions. Those are part of the correlation. Drainage, irrigation and things, and the management of the water and soils are what is actually related to that.
5:15 p.m.
Liberal
Francis Scarpaleggia Liberal Lac-Saint-Louis, QC
I imagine that these are some of things that the agricultural GHG program is looking into. I believe there was a grant made to Macdonald College in my riding.
5:15 p.m.
Director General, Ontario - Quebec Region, Science and Technology Branch, Department of Agriculture and Agri-Food
[Inaudible—Editor]
5:15 p.m.
Liberal
Francis Scarpaleggia Liberal Lac-Saint-Louis, QC
Yes, that's why I'm asking.
There's also another organization in my riding. I don't mean to bring it all back to my own constituency, but at FPInnovations they seem to be doing fantastic work in developing new products for the forestry sector. Do any of these new products help with this battle against greenhouse gas emissions, or is it not really relevant to the issue?
Is it more of a commercial product development issue that has no bearing on greenhouse gas emissions, or are some of the things they're doing helping in the area of mitigating greenhouse gas emissions as well?
5:15 p.m.
Assistant Deputy Minister, Canadian Forest Service, Department of Natural Resources
What FPInnovations does significantly contributes, I think, to what we're trying to do in the greening of the economy and the shift to the low-carbon economy.
Before I go on to FPInnovations, I would like to say with regard to water conservation that Dr. Tam, the chief public health officer for Canada, in her first report last November, talks about the built environment and the importance of green infrastructure. Actually, if you plant trees, if you have urban forests, this helps reduce the temperatures. If you have more green—living plant material—within a city, it also has a significant impact on water conservation. I wanted to mention that in terms of an urban environment.
FPInnovations, as you probably know, was created in 2006-07 by the amalgamation of three forest research institutes. Without the research that goes on at FPInnovations, we wouldn't have the tall wood buildings, the cross-laminated timber, the mass timber structures and the substitution of wood for steel and concrete.
We want to do more of that. We actually have this technology overseas now. Canada helps support an eco-district in China, and I think we're pushing.... You may know that the federal government is a strong financial contributor through Natural Resources Canada to FPInnovations, and we are pushing them into broadening and diversifying the bioproducts range, such as bioplastics, for instance.
5:15 p.m.
Mr. John Aldag (Cloverdale—Langley City, Lib.)
Yes.
I just have to say that Francis, our national caucus chair, uses a yellow and red card system.
5:15 p.m.
Liberal
5:15 p.m.
Voices
Oh, oh!
5:15 p.m.
Steveston—Richmond East, Lib.
He uses it freely, much more freely than Mr. Aldag.
5:15 p.m.
Edmonton—Wetaskiwin, CPC
I thought he was treating this as a soccer match. I thought he was kicking him out.
I want to follow up on the line of questioning that we've had. Over the last several weeks of meetings that we've had, we've heard from witnesses about the many tools at our disposal to try to reach our Paris Agreement targets. I want to zero in on this forestry and land use component.
Beth, I was listening to the nugget of truth that you gave there regarding urban forests and parks and the concept there. For regular Canadians who don't follow this all the time—and really, I want your language to reflect that in answering this question—what is the optimal carbon outcome of absolutely optimizing our land use as a country?
We have a massive amount of land in this country. I'm thinking specifically about forestry and plant life. If you think about decreasing emissions—the forest fire question and whatever other ways we can decrease emissions as that relates to plant life—and increasing absorption of carbon, what would you share as things that Canadians need to know about how to reach that optimal outcome for Canada?
I don't know if Beth wants to start. How about if I just leave it open to anyone who wants to weigh in on that?
5:20 p.m.
Assistant Deputy Minister, Canadian Forest Service, Department of Natural Resources
Since we only have three minutes, I don't know if it's—