Evidence of meeting #146 for Procedure and House Affairs in the 42nd Parliament, 1st session. (The original version is on Parliament’s site, as are the minutes.) The winning word was tree.
A recording is available from Parliament.
NDP
Randall Garrison NDP Esquimalt—Saanich—Sooke, BC
Would your professional evaluation be of a higher quality if you had a bit more time to wait to see about the leaf out? Would that give you a better perspective, as a professional, on the health of the tree if you could wait for...? I call this spring, but I'm from Victoria.
Should it wait for spring to see the leaf out? Would you be able to give a better evaluation of the long-term prospects of the tree at that point?
Senior Landscape Architect and Arborist, Department of Public Works and Government Services
More data is always better just objectively, but I feel fairly confident of the assessment I have given so far, considering I had multiple opportunities...including when the tree was in leaf already. The aerial inspection, and looking closely at the twigs, is a really valuable tool as well for arborists.
NDP
Randall Garrison NDP Esquimalt—Saanich—Sooke, BC
Mr. Chair, I'm back to my same question of how we can be effective decision-makers.
The two questions, again, are, in the short term can we get a good evaluation of the tree, and second, are we making a right choice here with the visitor welcome centre on this spot?
Those are two questions that I'd still like to know how parliamentarians can address.
Liberal
Liberal
Scott Simms Liberal Coast of Bays—Central—Notre Dame, NL
I'm not sure if we're embarking on a venture into palliative care, because for this particular tree, I don't have a lot of faith in its ability to live beyond what we already see.
You just said something about an aerial view of the tree. Can you explain how that works? Does that give you substantial knowledge, a good dataset, as to how long this tree will survive?
Senior Landscape Architect and Arborist, Department of Public Works and Government Services
It gives you more information about the health of the canopy of the tree. In this particular case, it gave us more information about the health of the cavity within the tree.
Viewing the tree only from the ground is considered a limitation in terms of an assessment. Last week we were able to get a piece of equipment that brought a staff member up into the canopy to collect the twigs. Looking at the length of those twigs, and the health of the buds across the different parts of the tree does give you a good idea of the health of the tree in terms of how much growth it was able to sustain last year. That's not isolated just to the most recent period; that's the entire year's growth.
It's very important to get a close-up look at the cavity as well. It gives you an idea of whether the tree is successfully containing the decay agent for whatever caused that hollowing.
Liberal
Scott Simms Liberal Coast of Bays—Central—Notre Dame, NL
So that's how you monitor the cavity, from above?
Senior Landscape Architect and Arborist, Department of Public Works and Government Services
Yes. You go into a lift, and you get close up to it. You can probe it.
Liberal
Senior Landscape Architect and Arborist, Department of Public Works and Government Services
No, there was no drone; it was a person in a lift.
Liberal
Scott Simms Liberal Coast of Bays—Central—Notre Dame, NL
Yes. I was looking for something far more grandiose.
I understand there are limitations to being on the ground. I should know: I'm five foot four. When you look at the tree, what is the most valuable dataset you can collect? Whether it's aerial or it's actually measuring from the outside of the tree, what is it?
Senior Landscape Architect and Arborist, Department of Public Works and Government Services
Again, more information is always good.
Liberal
Scott Simms Liberal Coast of Bays—Central—Notre Dame, NL
What is the most specific one you look at? If you were to walk up and say you have one measurement to make on this tree, what's it going to be, to decide whether it's in good health or not?
Senior Landscape Architect and Arborist, Department of Public Works and Government Services
I would never evaluate a tree based on one measure alone. I'm sorry. It's really a combination of factors. I'm sorry to not provide a more comprehensive—
Liberal
Scott Simms Liberal Coast of Bays—Central—Notre Dame, NL
It's quite all right. I have to look at policy all day. I always get it mixed up. I know how you feel.
Senior Landscape Architect and Arborist, Department of Public Works and Government Services
I look at the structure of the tree, whether there are any significant defects like the cavity, in combination with the health of the leaves, in combination with the environmental factors around it, and in combination with how other trees that are nearby and sharing similar environmental conditions are doing.
You look at all these together. You really shouldn't look at any one of them in isolation. Any one out of context could be misleading.
Liberal
Scott Simms Liberal Coast of Bays—Central—Notre Dame, NL
You said earlier that what you have seen thus far leads you to believe the conclusion about the lifespan of the tree. Mr. Garrison spoke of waiting to see what we have this coming spring, although you are satisfied with what you have seen so far. But that's not in isolation, is it? How far back are you going?
Senior Landscape Architect and Arborist, Department of Public Works and Government Services
We reviewed reports from as early as 1995, but my personal observations started in September of last year.
Liberal
Scott Simms Liberal Coast of Bays—Central—Notre Dame, NL
Those are your personal observations in addition to what has been measured since 1995?
Senior Landscape Architect and Arborist, Department of Public Works and Government Services
Yes.
Liberal
Senior Landscape Architect and Arborist, Department of Public Works and Government Services
We had a report from 1995 and then a further five reports done by external arborists and registered professional foresters in 2017 and 2018.
Liberal
Scott Simms Liberal Coast of Bays—Central—Notre Dame, NL
Okay. Thank you.
Mr. Wright, this is obviously a more general question beyond just the one tree.
Let's look at the forest separate from the tree. When it comes to green space, how is the green space situation around Centre Block going to look 10 years from now as opposed to what it looked like last year when we closed down or this year when we close down?
Assistant Deputy Minister, Parliamentary Precinct, Department of Public Works and Government Services
The plan is to have significantly more green space on the Hill, not less. We're moving towards more green rather than away from it. That really is the plan.
One thing that's critically important is that we're really trying to move to a campus approach to the way the precinct works. One element of that is how—
Liberal
Scott Simms Liberal Coast of Bays—Central—Notre Dame, NL
Can I get you to back up for a second? What is a campus approach?
