Evidence of meeting #113 for Natural Resources in the 42nd Parliament, 1st Session. (The original version is on Parliament’s site, as are the minutes.) The winning word was trees.
A recording is available from Parliament.
11:50 a.m.
Voices
Oh, oh!
11:50 a.m.
Conservative
Cathay Wagantall Conservative Yorkton—Melville, SK
There you go.
However, I want to draw on the point you made that one thing government could do would be to encourage Canadians to value their trees more and to get out of that environment where you don't get to experience them. The truth is, to do that, most of us have to get out of where we live and go somewhere else.
It's a known fact that in Canada there are at least four times as many camping units as there are opportunities to camp. It is an issue for people to be able to get out to enjoy that. It's important for Canadian families, and it's also important for the tourist industry. My concern is that lately when it comes to private SMEs, smaller campgrounds in Canada, the government decided to redesignate them as passive income, which increased the taxes to the place to where, as I've heard from small campground owners in Ontario and in Saskatchewan, they can no longer stay in business.
When you look at a whole-of-government approach to making sure that the environment is valued and that the outdoors are valued, is this something that would be a concern? It's an oxymoron, in a way. We want to keep things pristine, yet the majority of Canadians also need that opportunity to experience it.
11:50 a.m.
Vice-Chair, Board of Directors, Tree Canada
Those of you who know me will know that I have a view about issues like that, but I'll beg off on the specifics in this case. I'll simply talk about the value of trees and the need to do more, and the need, in answer to Mr. Hehr's last question, to not just say to people, “Plant trees.” We have a lot of people who, with the best intentions in the world, plant the tree, but they don't look after it.
At Tree Canada, we have our trees planted properly and appropriately by professionals and we monitor the success rate. We're running at somewhere around 75% success after five years. If you just plant a tree and go away, it may work or it may not. Our view is simply that we're doing a little, but a lot needs to be done. When a lot needs to be in Canada, those of you who live in municipalities will know they lack expertise and they lack currency, and when something big needs to be done, there's the big government, and that's it. It's the big government that should do it.
11:50 a.m.
Conservative
Cathay Wagantall Conservative Yorkton—Melville, SK
In that regard I agree, because that education side of it is important. I can remember that in 1967 this country was celebrating its birthday, and I got a tree. It was planted in the front yard. I no longer live there, but that tree is alive to this day. There was education in our schools and our smaller communities where trees were provided, and the explanations were made. Those trees are filling our school grounds in the community I live in now.
11:50 a.m.
Vice-Chair, Board of Directors, Tree Canada
It's not a bad idea for national tree day.
11:55 a.m.
Conservative
11:55 a.m.
Conservative
Cathay Wagantall Conservative Yorkton—Melville, SK
No, not at all. We're on the same page.
Thank you.
11:55 a.m.
Conservative
Ted Falk Conservative Provencher, MB
Do we have an abundant supply of seedlings or saplings—whatever you want to call them—available for reforestation?
11:55 a.m.
President, Tree Canada
That's not an issue, no.
Sometimes on the urban front, though, there is an issue related to the genetics of some of the stock. Some of it comes from the United States, so there is a concern there, more on the urban side than the rural side, but we have good seedling production in Canada, yes.
11:55 a.m.
Conservative
Ted Falk Conservative Provencher, MB
I think you also indicated that the mountain pine beetle is also a threat to your urban forest preserves and that something needs to be done. In the last 20 years, the government has spent almost $400 million in trying to curb the infestation of the mountain pine beetle and, according to previous testimony, it has been relatively ineffective. What do you think we can do to prevent the mountain pine beetle from invading our urban forests?
11:55 a.m.
President, Tree Canada
Thankfully, the one large community was Prince George. Its whole urban forest was lodgepole pine, and it all came down in about the year 2000. I remember the logging trucks sitting in the town as they were carting away, literally, the urban forest to the mill.
The key there is to replace them, obviously, with another species. Stopping that infestation is really difficult. I don't know. It's on such a huge scale that it's really difficult. I can't even provide advice as to how to do that, to be honest. I'm sorry.
11:55 a.m.
Liberal
Marc Serré Liberal Nickel Belt, ON
You mentioned two points on education. We heard earlier that Canada's a trading nation, and we heard earlier about Pearson. There were a lot of issues with the airport, with bugs coming in.
Do you have any experience or recommendations on that front with what to facilitate for Pearson?
11:55 a.m.
President, Tree Canada
That's an area for the CFIA, which of course takes care of that. We have standards for how wood enters this country and how it has to be treated, how it has to be oven-dried and the bark cannot be on it. To get somebody to inspect every single pallet that comes into this country is incredibly difficult. One thing that we can do is to increase our inspections and that sort of thing, for sure.
Another point is that people transporting wood products around the country is a real way to vector insect infestations from place to place. The emerald ash borer is in Winnipeg now, and it's in Edmundston, New Brunswick, and there's nothing in between. In other words, it's being transported by people. People have a love for their firewood that you would not believe. They sell their house and they move to another house, and they're taking cords of firewood with them around the country. It's a terrible idea.
That's part of what Léo was mentioning with regard to education. We need to educate people a lot about the value.... I know it sounds simple, but not moving firewood around would have helped a lot of people in Winnipeg and Edmundston, New Brunswick.
11:55 a.m.
Liberal
The Chair Liberal James Maloney
Unfortunately, that's all the time we have.
Gentlemen, thank you all very much for joining us this morning, and for your valuable contribution to our study.
Let's suspend for two minutes while we get the next video conference set up, and people can grab some lunch.
12:05 p.m.
Liberal
The Chair Liberal James Maloney
Good afternoon, everybody.
We're going to get going with our second round of witnesses.
From the City of Toronto by video conference, we have Beth McEwen, Manager, Forest and Natural Area Management, and Jozef Ric, Supervisor, Forest Health Care. Here, we have from the Department of Public Safety and Emergency Preparedness, Mr. Patrick Tanguy and Calvin Christiansen.
Thank you all for joining us this morning.
Just so you know, you're the last set of witnesses for this study, so you will have to fill all the gaping holes that remain. There's no pressure.
The process is that each group will be given up to 10 minutes to make their presentation, and then we open the floor to questions.
We will start with the City of Toronto.
12:05 p.m.
Beth McEwen Manager Forest and Natural Area Management, Urban Forestry, City of Toronto
Thank you.
My name is Beth McEwen, and I'm here with Jozef Ric.
I will start the presentation.
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