Natural Resources committee  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.

Natural Resources committee  Absolutely, yes.

Natural Resources committee  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.

Natural Resources committee  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.

Natural Resources committee  I hear you. Can I delegate that one to you, Léo?

Natural Resources committee  That's nice. It's something to think about.

Natural Resources committee  And in rural municipalities. We do seedling plantings as well.

Natural Resources committee  It is declining, yes. In Vancouver for instance, the canopy cover has actually gone down in the last 20 years in spite of all the wonderful green efforts and great community efforts and all that. Part of it is invasive insects. That's taking a big toll. A lot of it is actually figuring out how we densify our municipalities.

Natural Resources committee  There's no doubt that a changing climate is producing changes in all forests—rural and urban for that matter. We've seen that in a very concrete way at Tree Canada. We respond to natural disasters under a program called Operation ReLeaf. We found that it started with the Kelowna wildfires in 2003 and then it went into another year.

Natural Resources committee  I think part of the question relates to the standardization of things across the country, the amount of green space and also certain practices—for instance, the use of many species of trees not only in rural areas but also in urban areas. The urban forest fell into a pattern of planting one type of tree along many streets, and that didn't lead us to a very good place after Dutch elm disease and emerald ash borer.

Natural Resources committee  That's a good question. It's a difficult one to respond to, but I'll try to do the best I can. I've had a career long enough now that I can actually remember different waves of gypsy moth. I've worked mostly in eastern Canada, although I did work two summers on Vancouver Island, at MacMillan Bloedel and Weldwood, actually, as a student.

Natural Resources committee  We raise $6 million a year to run our programs, and every part of our program has an educational piece. We plant 300,000 trees a year, but honestly, I'll say this to the standing committee, 300,000 trees in a country the size of Canada is not a lot. It's less than a drop in the bucket.

Natural Resources committee  I would like to add something to that as well. It's increasingly evident that we are spending much less time outside than we ever have in the history of people, and particularly here in Canada. It doesn't matter if you're in the south or if you're in the north. I'll put it to you this way, children are spending a lot of time in front of screens—you know that; everybody knows that—and it's having an effect on our health, mental health and physical health.

Natural Resources committee  I think that you're absolutely on to something. We don't have any kind of standardization in that respect, and I think it's really needed. I think you're really on to something. I was in China two years ago. They have a system called “forest cities” in which they accredit how many metres 80% of the population is from a green space area.

Natural Resources committee  Thank you for your question. There are two ways to answer your question. First, the federal government lacks leadership. It projects an image more than anything else. It would be good for the Canadian Forest Service's website to have a section that reflects the realities of urban forests.