Natural Resources Committee on Oct. 30th, 2020

[Rachael Thomas, Conservative, Lethbridge, AB]

I'm sorry, Ms. MacNeil, but just in the interests of time, I have very specific questions and I ask that you answer them directly. Thank you.

With regard to these trees, then, two billion trees are supposed to be planted by 2030. Not a single one of them has gone in the ground to date. In order to meet this deadline, nearly half a million trees would have had to be planted every single day. What is your plan, Ms. MacNeil, or the department's plan, in terms of getting these trees in the ground by 2030?

I'm looking for just a detailed plan, just an outline of the plan.

[Beth MacNeil]

I do not have a detailed plan at this time. We are awaiting the budget—

[Rachael Thomas, Conservative, Lethbridge, AB]

Thank you.

It's shameful that there is no plan. It's shameful that the Prime Minister would come forward with a promise in his election campaign and then would reiterate that promise during his Speech from the Throne, and still there would be no plan in place. This was supposed to start in 2020. It obviously has not. We're coming to the end of the year. We have about two months left, and there is no plan. That's shameful. That's a lack of leadership.

My next question, then, is this. You said in your opening remarks that forests play a very key role in carbon sequestering and helping us find solutions for climate change. Would you agree with me, then, that if forests play such a key role, wouldn't farmers and the work they do also play a very important role?

[Beth MacNeil]

Yes.

[Rachael Thomas, Conservative, Lethbridge, AB]

Thank you.

May I ask why more attention is not given to that, or would you have an answer?

[Beth MacNeil]

My colleagues at Agriculture and Agri-food Canada and Environment and Climate Change Canada are involved in meeting with stakeholders in the agricultural sector for nature-based climate solutions.

[Rachael Thomas, Conservative, Lethbridge, AB]

I know this has little to do with you, but I would say that actually this government unfortunately demonizes farmers over and over again, when we know that they actually play an incredibly key role in sequestering carbon and helping maintain a strong environment for Canada.

My next question is this: The Prime Minister also announced a ban on plastics that would start being put in place in 2021. In your opening remarks, you talked about how forests play a key role in maintaining a strong environment, but a ban on plastics—which, by the way, can be produced in a way that is incredibly environmentally friendly, through the use of natural gas and the reuse of plastic, so there's a recycling capacity there—means that instead there's going to be a shift to using paper products and wood products. That means that more and more of our forests are going to be taken down.

You just said that they're needed as an environmental solution, going forward, with regard to climate change. Why are we banning plastic?

[Beth MacNeil]

I would invite my Environment Canada colleagues to answer on the regulatory regime for banning plastics.

We harvest less than 1% of our forests in Canada, and what we harvest, by law, has to be replaced.

[Rachael Thomas, Conservative, Lethbridge, AB]

I understand—

[The Chair, Liberal, James Maloney]

Thanks, Ms. MacNeil.

Unfortunately, that's all the time we have, Ms. Harder.

[Rachael Thomas, Conservative, Lethbridge, AB]

Thank you.

[The Chair, Liberal, James Maloney]

You're very welcome.

Mr. Lefebvre, we go over to you for five minutes.

[Paul Lefebvre, Liberal, Sudbury, ON]

Thank you, Mr. Chair.

Thank you, Ms. MacNeil. It's good to see you again.

Maybe I will give you a minute to answer the question that was asked with respect to the two billion trees. I know you wanted to say some more on that, so maybe you can follow up to fully answer the question that was asked by my colleague.

[Beth MacNeil]

Thank you.

Mr. Chair, what I intended to say was that we have been engaging with people and doing the necessary groundwork to inform our plan since last November, but the government hasn't remained idle. Under the low carbon economy fund and the disaster mitigation and adaptation fund, the Government of Canada has supported over the last few years, and will complete by 2022, the planting of 150 million trees coast to coast.

On top of that, our tree planting season in Canada, which saw the planting of 600 million trees this year, was at risk because of COVID. Some of the costs went up as much as 20%, so the government is currently implementing, under Natural Resources Canada, $30 million to help defray those costs, which ensured that the trees got into the ground this year.

[Paul Lefebvre, Liberal, Sudbury, ON]

On that point, given the $30 million that we put forward with regard to health and safety during tree planting, do you have any more information that you'd like to share with us as to how the season went, because the snow's almost on the ground here. I'm sure it is across the country, in other provinces.

[Beth MacNeil]

That's an excellent question. I'm very happy to report that with the added money that was available, not a single tree planter actually contracted COVID, so the extra measures that we took—extra vehicles, extra dining halls right along the whole tree planting value chain, as well as the protection of communities that these tree planters went into—were a success, and all 600 million trees got planted this year.

[Paul Lefebvre, Liberal, Sudbury, ON]

Thank you.

I'm the son of a welder who worked in the pulp and paper industry at Spruce Falls in Kapuskasing. Actually, my grandfather helped build the mill back in the 1920s, so pulp and paper is very key to me. I know that this pandemic has really put a stress on paper.

On the pulp side and with regard to the bioeconomy and diversification, what are you hearing from stakeholders across the country about that potential?

[Beth MacNeil]

Mr. Chair, the potential with regard to the pulp side of the business in support of the bioeconomy and bioproducts, I really believe, is limitless. For instance, I've seen a plastic bottle that's made from waste from the bioeconomy. It's a little brown-looking, but this bottle won't go in your recycling bin; it's actually biocompostable. We are seeing things that we never imagined coming from residue and other products from the pulp side of the business. There's huge opportunity.

[Paul Lefebvre, Liberal, Sudbury, ON]

Thank you.

You also mentioned that what we're trying to do on the international markets is support exports of Canada's value-added products and just raw products as well. Can you give us more information? I don't think we have a lot of witnesses who can come forward to provide us with what we're doing as a government to support Canadian stakeholders to access international markets.

[Beth MacNeil]

We have the expanding market opportunities program. We're targeting countries such as Japan, India and China. Our exports have actually increased eightfold in the last number of years. I was on an international call just yesterday, and the demand is high, even though we're operating in a digital world. EMO, the expanding market opportunities program, partnered with 14 separate organizations in Canada this year, and the market has not slowed down in terms of exports.

[Paul Lefebvre, Liberal, Sudbury, ON]

That's great.

How much time do I have, Mr. Chair?

[The Chair, Liberal, James Maloney]

You have 30 seconds.

[Paul Lefebvre, Liberal, Sudbury, ON]

On the IFI, the indigenous forestry initiative, can you give us a bit of background on the success that this program has had?

I know you've enhanced it and I've witnessed this with my own eyes, but I want to hear from the department about what you guys are seeing as the benefits and the consequences that this funding has provided.

[Beth MacNeil]

I view the indigenous forestry initiative really as economic development of true reconciliation on the ground to support indigenous communities across the country. Whether it's supporting them in the bioeconomy or bioheat and bioenergy, it's had a significant impact from an economic perspective.

[The Chair, Liberal, James Maloney]

Thank you, Ms. MacNeil, and thanks, Mr. Lefebvre.

Mr. Simard, you have two and a half minutes.