Ottawa’s pledge to plant two billion trees is proving difficult to execute
MATTHEW MCCLEARN PUBLISHED AUGUST 7, 2022 UPDATED AUGUST 12, 2022
“Standing atop an old landfill, Francis Allard is in his element.”
Mr. Allard is co-founder of Ramo, whose business is planting willows and poplars to help remediate landfills, mines and marginal land. At the Ste-Sophie Landfill north of Montreal, the company is growing willows to treat leachate from areas of the facility that were closed decades ago. Ramo harvests the trees every few years, weaving them into a variety of products, including fences and noise barriers. It’s also establishing a plantation in northern Quebec to supply soil amendments for reclamation at nearby mines.
But Mr. Allard’s mood darkens back at Ramo’s new $7-million willow nursery nearby. Half of it was paid for using funding from the federal government’s 2 Billion Trees program (2BT for short). An early believer in the program, Mr. Allard scaled up Ramo’s capacity to meet the anticipated surge in demand.”
Click here to continue reading about Ottawa’s plan and whether the numbers will add up in the end.
