According to Environment Commissioner Jerry DeMarco, the government's cabinet could only fulfill its promise of planting two billion trees with assistance from the provinces. The Liberal Party made the commitment during the 2019 election, but did not achieved its targets.. Environment Commissioner Jerry DeMarco .“They need to concentrate much more on results,” DeMarco testified at the Commons Natural Resources committee. .“This is a theme of a lot of our reports. They have to be realistic with their programs.”.According to Blacklock’s Reporter, the Liberal Party in its 2019 election platform Forward: A Real Plan for the Middle Class proposed to plant two billion trees within a decade. .“We will plant two billion trees to clean our air and protect our communities,” said the document. .“This will help create 3,500 seasonal jobs in tree planting each year.”.According to DeMarco, the Natural Resources department is far from achieving the goal..“It fell well short,” said DeMarco..“We found that given the number of trees planted so far. This program is unlikely to succeed unless significant changes are made.”.According to a Feb. 15 Inquiry of Ministry, the government had planted 28.9 million trees as of the end of 2022..The Budget Office estimates that the program, originally budgeted at $3.16 billion for 10 years, will now cost $5.94 billion..“There is a lot of reforestation that goes on just in the normal course of forestry,” said DeMarco. .“This is supposed to be two billion incremental trees, not just double counting the ones that have been done for forest management generally.”.DeMarco testified that tree nurseries “don’t want to make those investments in seedlings unless they know there is going to be demand for them.” .“The federal government can’t create that demand on its own because most Crown land in Canada is provincially controlled,” said DeMarco..“That’s a key partner, is those agreements with the provinces.”.According to Kimberly Leach, an auditor who reviewed the tree program, the Government of Canada can only plant two billion trees with assistance..“Provinces are the group that is going to plant the most trees,” said Leach. .The Commons committee was told that the Cabinet still needed to sign tree-planting contracts with all provinces..“Almost 70% of the trees that are to be planted through this program will be by provinces and territories,” said Leach. .“In 2022, they decided they wanted an agreement in principle with provinces before they started to have project proposals accepted. That was really the significant challenge that happened.”.New Democrat MP Charlie Angus (Timmins-James Bay, ON) questioned the program. .“The two billion tree program just to me seemed like such a perfect Instagram quote,” said Angus.
