Federal environment commissioner says Ottawa used 'creative accounting' to mislead Canadians on 2 billion tree pledge

After two years, Ottawa has planted only 4% of its 2 billion tree benchmarks. Trudeau promised to plant 29 million trees in 2021, followed by another 60 million in 2022. With the 'creative accounting,' the revised interim numbers are approximately 110 million trees by last year and 83 million in 2021.

  • Rebel News
  • August 18, 2023
  • News Analysis
Federal environment commissioner says Ottawa used 'creative accounting' to mislead Canadians on 2 billion tree pledge
The Canadian Press / Gino Donato
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Prime Minister Justin Trudeau promised to plant two billion trees over the next decade — a promise he is not likely to keep. 

Environment Commissioner Jerry DeMarco says Ottawa uses 'creative accounting' to peddle the claim they exceed its pledge targets. 

DeMarco told the CBC that Natural Resources Canada (NRCAN) is boosting its numbers by using trees planted under a different program by another department.

"It's creative accounting," he said. "It's certainly within their prerogative to do that.

On June 13, DeMarco testified that NRCAN is far from meeting its target, as Ottawa has only planted 28.9 million trees, 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 "to clean our air and protect our communities." 

"This will help create 3,500 seasonal jobs in tree planting each year," read the document.

After two years, Ottawa has planted only 4% of its 2 billion tree benchmarks. Trudeau promised to plant 29 million trees in 2021, followed by another 60 million in 2022. 

According to Blacklock's Reporter, the environment commissioner expects Ottawa will only plant 76.2 million trees (3.8%) under the initial program by 2030.

"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."

With the 'creative accounting,' NRCAN revised interim numbers in August, claiming it planted approximately 110 million trees by last year and 83 million in 2021.

In a statement, the department clarified its revised interim figures now include millions of trees planted through partner programs like Environment and Climate Change Canada's Low Carbon Economy Fund (LCEF).

"Data from the LCEF program […] was received and validated against the two billion tree program's objectives this summer," said NRCAN spokesperson Keean Nembhard.

However, DeMarco forewarned the government cannot simply find trees from other programs "to achieve the benefits for climate, biodiversity and human health."

"Adding trees is needed. Not simply finding trees and other programs that have already been planted and saying, 'Oh, this now counts, we've got a higher number than anyone expected,'" he said.

Conservative MP Greg McLean, who sits on the House of Commons environment committee, concurred with De Marco. He bluntly told the state broadcaster that the Liberals are being disingenuous with their math.

"Let's admit to Canadians what this is. This program was a bit of a virtue-signal in the first place," he said.

Wilkinson told the CBC that when the government announced its two billion trees initiative, it relayed it would rely on trees already planted through other programs.

"I am not sure Canadians care if some of the trees come from Low Carbon Economy or some come from other programs," he said, adding that Canadians only care if the government achieves its aims of enhancing biodiversity and reducing carbon emissions.

In June, Auditor Kimberly Leach admitted the federal government would only plant two billion trees with help from other levels of government. 

"Given the number of trees planted so far, this program is unlikely to succeed unless significant changes are made," she said.

In 2022, Ottawa pursued agreements with provinces to plant trees and reach program targets. As of March, it had signed agreements with five of 10 provinces and two of three territories to meet the target.

As of 2022, 94 deals with private and public partners struck out. Only 23 have reached completion as of October.

According to Blacklock's Reporter, Québec planted the most trees of all provinces (14 million), followed by B.C. (10.5 million), Alberta (1.6 million), New Brunswick (1.1 million), Ontario (925,000), Manitoba (257,000), Saskatchewan (145,000), Newfoundland and Labrador (67,000), Nova Scotia (37,000) and Prince Edward Island (5,000).

"Provinces are the group that [will] plant the most trees," said Leach, adding the provinces and territories would need to plant about 70% of the trees for the program to meet its targets without delay.

"The department designed the 'two billion tree' program with the expectation that provinces and territories would use 67.5% of all program funds to plant 1.34 billion trees; this constitutes a major program risk," DeMarco wrote in Planting Two Billion Trees. 

By 2027, the commissioner said Canada would need to plant 350 million seedlings yearly, with the program likely to go 88% over budget.

A February 15 Inquiry Of Ministry tabled in the Commons pegged the program costs at $3.16 billion over ten years. The Parliamentary Budget Office (PBO) now expects those costs to be $5.94 billion.

The commissioner noted that Canada has 895 million acres of forest, with over 600 million trees planted annually under Crown licenses with forestry companies. From 2007 to 2017, timber companies and provinces planted 5.6 billion trees, nearly triple the federal plan.

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