Zero..That's the number of trees the Liberals have planted despite spending more than $3 million towards their plan to plant two billion trees in Canada..Blacklock's Reporter said records from Natural Resources Minister Jonathan Wilkinson’s department show staff salaries were a leading expense..“The department did not spend any funding to plant trees directly,” Wilkinson wrote in an Inquiry Of Ministry tabled in the Commons..“Rather the department supports organizations planting trees with funding through grants.”.The Liberal Party in its 2019 election platform proposed to plant two billion trees within a decade..“We will plant two billion trees to clean our air and protect our communities,” said their plan..“This will help create 3,500 seasonal jobs in tree planting each year.”.Wilkinson said department spending to date has totaled $3.1 million without planting a tree. Costs included $2,099,901 on staff salaries and $743,362 for “operations and maintenance.”.Line by line expenses were requested by Conservative MP Greg McLean (Calgary Centre)..Costs totaled $208,943 for management consultants and $39,833 for “public relations services,” said the Inquiry. Another $345,233 was spent on software and computer services..Wilkinson in May 19 testimony at the Commons natural resources committee acknowledged the tree planting campaign was off to a slow start..“Growing seedlings takes two or three years,” he said..“The 30 million trees that we will have planted this year were the product of actually going out and finding excess trees.”.“Why are you so bad at making plans and meeting the objectives of those plans that you announce to the Canadian public?” asked McLean..“I’ve never understood why these kinds of discussions have to be so confrontational,” replied Minister Wilkinson..“We have been planting those seedlings through the various agencies. We’ve been very public that the numbers are going to ramp over the next number of years. We are very comfortable that we’re on track to get to two billion trees.”.Cabinet estimated costs of its ten-year program at $3.16 billion. The Parliamentary Budget Office in a 2021 report said actual costs would rise to $5.94 billion.
