Natural Resources Committee on Sept. 25th, 2018

[Nick Whalen, Liberal, St. John's East, NL]

Thanks, Mr. St-Germain.

[The Chair, Liberal, James Maloney]

Go ahead, Mr. Falk.

[Ted Falk, Conservative, Provencher, MB]

Thank you, Mr. Chairman.

Thank you to all of our witnesses, both by video conference and here in person.

Mr. MacFarlane, I would like to begin with you. What is the Canadian Forest Service's jurisdiction?

[Derek MacFarlane]

Our jurisdiction is national in focus, but we do have five regional labs across the country. We're basically a science policy organization. As we mentioned, the provinces and territories are responsible for forest management under their jurisdictions.

We would provide science-based results for forest land managers to develop policies and programs around pest management, but we don't have the mandate to implement those policies and programs within provinces.

[Ted Falk, Conservative, Provencher, MB]

Would you work with your provincial counterparts on that?

[Derek MacFarlane]

Absolutely. Our colleagues have mentioned the Canadian Council of Forest Ministers. There's a forest pest working group, which has representatives from all provinces and territories, as well as our colleagues from CFIA. We collaborate on that front as well.

[Ted Falk, Conservative, Provencher, MB]

In regard to the mountain pine beetle and the spruce budworm, can you let the committee know the injury or damage that these two pests can inflict?

[Derek MacFarlane]

My colleague is my numbers man here, but in B.C. the impact has been significant. The mountain pine beetle has destroyed over 50% of the loggable pine in B.C., which has a huge impact on wood supply. In Alberta, it's having an impact on the foothills of the Rockies. It is on the eastern side of Alberta right now. Obviously, the mountain pine beetle impacts the quality and the supply of timber in those two provinces significantly.

The same holds for the spruce budworm. In Quebec, it's significant. Over 25 million hectares are affected right now, so there are impacts on wood supply. As my colleagues from the Province of New Brunswick just mentioned, the whole vision of this new approach for early spruce budworm intervention is to prevent an outbreak, which is significantly different.

[Ted Falk, Conservative, Provencher, MB]

Ultimately, the damage that is incurred is death to the tree and the forest. Does it render the wood or the product completely unusable?

[Derek MacFarlane]

It depends. Sorry for being vague, but it depends on the environment they are in. The mountain pine beetle can last two, three, four years and even longer in drier conditions. Obviously, the quality deteriorates. The mountain pine beetle also has a fungus that stains the wood, so the quality of the lumber deteriorates as well.

[Ted Falk, Conservative, Provencher, MB]

It's not as though it adds value.

[Derek MacFarlane]

For certain niche markets, it might add value, but for the traditional lumber quality markets, it's not good.

[Ted Falk, Conservative, Provencher, MB]

We've heard lots about the forest fires in British Columbia this past summer. What impact does that have on infestation?

[Derek MacFarlane]

In terms of dead and dying trees, I would say that infestations would increase the risk of wildfires. There has been a fair amount of effort made over the past number of years to reduce the risk around communities, including indigenous communities.

[Ted Falk, Conservative, Provencher, MB]

I wasn't quite clear on the answer, so I'll just get back to the damage they cause. Is the wood completely useless once it has been infected by the mountain pine beetle? Can it still be used? Does it need to be harvested quickly then?

[Derek MacFarlane]

That's correct. There is a time element for sure, but again it depends on the environment the trees are in. After four or five years of continual defoliation, the trees deteriorate and the spruce budworm kills them. A wood supply issue surrounds that.

[Ted Falk, Conservative, Provencher, MB]

Mr. Anderson, would you like to elaborate on any of that?

[William Anderson]

The CFIA has not been directly involved in the two species you just mentioned. They are considered non-regulated plant pests, so we have not been engaged at this point.

[Ted Falk, Conservative, Provencher, MB]

You carry a bigger stick when it comes to enforcement, I believe.

[William Anderson]

We do. We're a regulatory agency. We certainly have the ability to use tools. Whether those tools will be effective depends very much on the situation, the biology and the extent of distribution because they relate to movement restrictions—the ability to move in and out of regulatory-identified areas. If the distribution is large, it is not practical to implement these tools.

[Ted Falk, Conservative, Provencher, MB]

You talked about the ability some of these foreign pests have to be hitchhikers. What's your role there? You talked a little about it. You inspect some of the ships coming from Asian ports. How aggressive and active are you in that management?

[William Anderson]

We are increasingly focusing on preventing these invasive pests from coming to Canada. We recognize that they will not usually arrive within an agricultural commodity, although they can.

We are developing systems approaches and certification programs. We work with trading partners, and ideally we are engaging with trading partners who take a responsibility themselves to ensure they are not transporting pests that we know are of concern where they are from. For example, in shipments coming from Asia, we have discussions and get commitments in advance from ships leaving the harbour so that shippers have met the requirements and have done testing to ensure the pests we're concerned about have been identified and removed. For example, with respect to the Asian gypsy moth, ships are kept off site, two kilometres from the harbour, and we send people to inspect them there to ensure that certification is robust enough and working.

[Ted Falk, Conservative, Provencher, MB]

You talked about the two methods of dealing with invasive species. Can you elaborate on both of them? What's involved in those processes?

[William Anderson]

Do you mean the eradication program or the “slow the spread” program we have in place?

[Ted Falk, Conservative, Provencher, MB]

I meant both. Those are the two methods.