The federal government rejects the unanimous request of the National Assembly of Quebec to relax the conditions of the “2 billion trees” program, in particular to allow the cutting of part of these trees.
“We have been clear, this program will not fund projects that plant trees for the sole purpose of cutting or harvesting them,” said Canada’s Minister of Energy and Natural Resources, Jonathan Wilkinson, in a statement. transmitted to the Duty Friday.
The day before, all parties in the National Assembly of Quebec had asked with one voice to use federal funds to “ensure the rapid recovery of burned wood and the carrying out of silvicultural work following the forest fires of the ‘summer 2023’. The motion asks that Ottawa “relax the conditions of use” to receive part of the 3.16 billion from the “2 billion trees” program.
The text also reaffirms that natural resources are within the jurisdiction of Quebec.
The Minister of Natural Resources and Forests, Maïté Blanchette Vézina, also sent a letter co-signed by around a hundred players in the forestry industry to Mr. Wilkinson on Thursday. The letter urges Ottawa to fund the planting of trees intended to “be harvested over the long term and transformed into green building materials that store carbon for the long term, while enabling the production of green bioenergy.”
The planted trees should, according to the minister and the signatories, be “added to the forestry possibilities of the regions most affected by forest fires, particularly Abitibi-Témiscamingue, Nord-du-Québec, Mauricie, Côte-Nord and Saguenay Lac-Saint-Jean. »
The Quebec government has still not signed an agreement in principle to touch federal funding resulting from Prime Minister Justin Trudeau’s promise to plant two billion trees in a decade.
Minister Jonathan Wilkinson adds that his government is already paying for the fight against forest fires, to the tune of 800 million dollars in the country, in addition to support of 350 million for the forestry sector and its workers. “We will continue to work with the government of Quebec to collectively fight against forest fires caused by climate change. »
Last summer, in the middle of its third planting season, his ministry quietly changed the calculations of planted trees by adding data from a completely different program and two years old. The minister then clarified that, despite its name, the 2 billion trees program now aims to plant 1.8 billion.
With François Carabin, in Quebec