Thank you, Mr. Chair.
Mr. Hargrove, according to a Natural Resources Canada document on the state of Canada's forests, between 500 and 600 million trees were planted annually on public lands over a period of 10 years, specifically from 2010 to 2020. If I do some quick math, that works out to 5.5 billion trees planted over 10 years, probably largely by industry. That means it is achievable and it is possible to plant two billion trees per year.
The government may have gone about this the wrong way, unfortunately. I say that because of the commissioner of the environment and sustainable development's report, of course, but also because I have the feeling that you didn't seek out the expertise you needed to successfully plant two billion trees.
From the get-go, I had the feeling that this was more about having a political slogan than following through on a genuine desire, because I started talking to people about it in 2020. My colleague Paul Lefebvre was here then. I met with people. If there's anywhere that the forestry sector is important, it's definitely Quebec, especially my region. I met with people with the kind of expertise this program calls for, people who wanted to assist the department. That was in 2020. Those people got a call from you four or five weeks ago. From 2020 up to four or five weeks ago, people with the expertise necessary to plant two billion trees never heard from you even though they tried reaching out to build a network. Why did it take so long?