Ontario Liberals, NDP make tree-planting election pledges

spaminator

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Oct 26, 2009
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Ontario Liberals, NDP make tree-planting election pledges
Grit leader Steven Del Duca says his plan will help in removing pollution from the air in the province.

Author of the article:Canadian Press
Canadian Press
Publishing date:Apr 22, 2022 • 20 hours ago • 1 minute read • 21 Comments
A red pine tree sits alongside other planted trees in Ontario.
A red pine tree sits alongside other planted trees in Ontario. Postmedia files
Ontario’s New Democrats and Liberals are making Earth Day promises to plant trees if their parties are elected to form government in June.


The NDP says it will establish a “Youth Climate Corps” that will help the party meet its plan to plant one billion trees by 2030.

The Liberals are promising to plant 800 million trees over eight years.

NDP Leader Andrea Horwath says the paid jobs her party is promising will give young people work experience and a role in fighting the climate crisis.

The party didn’t immediately provide exact costs for the jobs program or tree planting, but Horwath said both are part of the NDP’s $40 billion climate plan.

Meanwhile, Leader Steven Del Duca says his party’s plan would plant 100 million trees every year for eight years.

He says Ontario families would have access to trees for free if they want to plant them at their homes. The Liberal plan would also provide municipalities with trees at no cost to plant in their communities.


The Liberals say their plan will create about 2,000 jobs for graduates and students and help remove pollution from the air in the province.

The party didn’t say how much the tree-planting initiative will cost either, but Del Duca has said his party will be releasing a fully costed platform soon.

A spokeswoman for Progressive Conservative Premier Doug Ford was critical of the Liberals’ plan, noting on Twitter that the previous Liberal government fell short of its goal to plant 50 million trees.

“They couldn’t plant 50 million in 10 years, but sure let’s pretend they can plant 800 million trees in eight,” Ivana Yelich wrote.
1229-bi-tree-planting-001.BI_-scaled-e1650631491393[1].jpg
 
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taxslave

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Nov 25, 2008
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Got an email from our Regional District administrators yesterday proclaiming their gratitude for all the first responders in the district. In our honour(and with our tax $$) they are planting a tree in Horne Lake Park. I'm so honoured. :)
 
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pgs

Hall of Fame Member
Nov 29, 2008
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Got an email from our Regional District administrators yesterday proclaiming their gratitude for all the first responders in the district. In our honour(and with our tax $$) they are planting a tree in Horne Lake Park. I'm so honoured. :)
Not enough trees at Horne Lake ?
 

spaminator

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LILLEY: Tree planting claims from NDP, Liberals aren't based in reality
The numbers don’t add up for either party when it comes to how many trees would need to be planted to meet their targets.

Author of the article:Brian Lilley
Publishing date:May 02, 2022 • 1 day ago • 3 minute read • 34 Comments
TREES ONTARIO - Free forest management workshops for landowners
PHOTO BY TREES ONTARIO /CNW Group
Election promises should be examined carefully, from all parties, not just believed because they sound good.


The recent Earth Day promises of the NDP and Liberals were simply reported without being questioned, which they really should be given the claims were made by the parties with few details on how they would accomplish their goals.

In their attempt to win the June 2 Ontario election, the NDP and Liberals tried to outbid each other on how many trees they would plant. Steven Del Duca’s Liberals were first out of the gate on Earth Day with a promise of 800 million trees over 8 years followed shortly thereafter by Andrea Horwath saying her party would plant 1 billion trees by 2030 if elected.

It’s hard to be against trees, and I’m not, but these promises simply aren’t based in reality. These are aspirational promises from both parties, not something either of them could actually achieve.


What do I base that bold claim on?

The numbers don’t add up for either party when it comes to how many trees would need to be planted to meet their targets. There are also historical records for previous promises from the Ontario and federal Liberals when it comes to tree planting.

Let’s start with the obvious: We aren’t short on trees in Ontario, the place is literally covered with them. Drive through Northern Ontario and you will wonder what we have other than trees. Wander the Ottawa Valley outside of the nation’s capital and it’s non-stop trees, or even fly over Toronto and you will be amazed at how many trees cover the biggest city in the country.

“Ontario has 70.4 million hectares of forest which is 4.8 hectares of forest for every Ontarian. This represents about 2% of the world’s forests and 20% of Canada’s forests,” the provincial Ministry of Natural Resources states.


Nearly 66% of Ontario’s 107.6 million hectares of land is already covered by forests, the rest is either northern land where we can’t grow trees, farms where we grow food, or places where we live in our homes, condos and apartments. While suburban sprawl is portrayed as the biggest reason for losing our forests, in Southern Ontario, agriculture was the biggest culprit between 2008 and 2018 while insect infestation was the biggest issue in Northern Ontario.

Using the fear that we’re paving paradise and putting up a parking lot, Ontario’s New Democrat and Liberal parties are promising to put more trees into the ground.

The Liberals have promised 100 million trees for 8 years, but the NDP is promising 1 billion by 2030 which means they will have about seven years after forming government to meet the promise, meaning 142,857,142 trees per year.


This would require planting 391,389 trees per day for the NDP plan to work and 273,972 trees per day for the Liberal plan. In 2008, the McGuinty government promised to plant 50 million trees by 2020 but the program was cancelled in 2018 by the Ford government for costing too much and not meeting targets.

They had planted just 24 million trees in 10 years or 6,575 trees per day and the private sector was already planting more trees at a much lower cost.

Then Minister of Environment and Climate Change Catherine McKenna holds a sapling during a funding announcement to support Forests Ontario in planting 50 million trees by 2025, on World Environment Day at the Dominion Arboretum in Ottawa on Wednesday, June 5, 2019. THE CANADIAN PRESS/Justin Tang
Then Minister of Environment and Climate Change Catherine McKenna holds a sapling during a funding announcement to support Forests Ontario in planting 50 million trees by 2025, on World Environment Day at the Dominion Arboretum in Ottawa on Wednesday, June 5, 2019. THE CANADIAN PRESS/Justin Tang
In 2019, the Trudeau Liberals promised to plant two billion trees across Canada by 2030 but by last November had planted just 8.5 million, of which 7.6 million were in British Columbia and just 89,000 trees had been planted in Ontario.

These Earth Day proclamations sound good, they make for good headlines, but like all political announcements, they should be analyzed to see if they are true or even feasible. Sadly, as long as politicians, especially the NDP or Liberal ones, promise to do something good for the environment, there is very little questioning, fact checking or analysis happening and instead their promise is simply repeated.

These promises are attempts by both parties to show they care about the environment while doing little to actually improve the environment.

blilley@postmedia.com
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taxme

Time Out
Feb 11, 2020
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Ontario Liberals, NDP make tree-planting election pledges
Grit leader Steven Del Duca says his plan will help in removing pollution from the air in the province.

Author of the article:Canadian Press
Canadian Press
Publishing date:Apr 22, 2022 • 20 hours ago • 1 minute read • 21 Comments
A red pine tree sits alongside other planted trees in Ontario.
A red pine tree sits alongside other planted trees in Ontario. Postmedia files
Ontario’s New Democrats and Liberals are making Earth Day promises to plant trees if their parties are elected to form government in June.


The NDP says it will establish a “Youth Climate Corps” that will help the party meet its plan to plant one billion trees by 2030.

The Liberals are promising to plant 800 million trees over eight years.

NDP Leader Andrea Horwath says the paid jobs her party is promising will give young people work experience and a role in fighting the climate crisis.

The party didn’t immediately provide exact costs for the jobs program or tree planting, but Horwath said both are part of the NDP’s $40 billion climate plan.

Meanwhile, Leader Steven Del Duca says his party’s plan would plant 100 million trees every year for eight years.

He says Ontario families would have access to trees for free if they want to plant them at their homes. The Liberal plan would also provide municipalities with trees at no cost to plant in their communities.


The Liberals say their plan will create about 2,000 jobs for graduates and students and help remove pollution from the air in the province.

The party didn’t say how much the tree-planting initiative will cost either, but Del Duca has said his party will be releasing a fully costed platform soon.

A spokeswoman for Progressive Conservative Premier Doug Ford was critical of the Liberals’ plan, noting on Twitter that the previous Liberal government fell short of its goal to plant 50 million trees.

“They couldn’t plant 50 million in 10 years, but sure let’s pretend they can plant 800 million trees in eight,” Ivana Yelich wrote.
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Finally we have some political party to vote for who is willing to take on the many serious crisis going on in the world like planting more trees. Inflation high gas prices, and immigration, will you please take a back seat, thank you. Climate change, planting trees, and covid is what we in the NDP socialist party are all about. Vote for Singh in the next election. What a guy and a leader. :ROFLMAO:
 

taxme

Time Out
Feb 11, 2020
2,349
976
113
Got an email from our Regional District administrators yesterday proclaiming their gratitude for all the first responders in the district. In our honour(and with our tax $$) they are planting a tree in Horne Lake Park. I'm so honoured. :)

You should see what it looks like in BC as far as trees go. There are billions of those muther phukin trees everywhere in BC. That is why it is so nice to go to places like Arizona where I can hardly find a tree anywhere, except for maybe finding a few cactus plants here and there. I never thought that a desert would look so good. :D