Jonathan Wilkinson sat in Cabinet and remained silent while Jane Philpott was kicked out of the Liberal party. He may be a ‘serious minister’ but he’s stayed in Cabinet by doing what the PMO tells him too. If the communication strategy involves creative accounting, his past behaviour shows this will not trouble him.
It would be nice if the policy debate on the usefulness of the tree planting program could be resolved by science and measurements and rational policy debate. Presumably some level of tree planting is good, but perhaps decreasing returns above some threshold...
Seems similar to debate on appropriate levels for immigration (none is demonstrably bad, but too much can also cause harm).
“That’s it. That’s the tweet” was a phrase the cool kids, and those working hard to join them, were putting in their tweets that year for emphasis." made me cackle
Paul love this analysis its why I subscribed. Don’t know why anybody is surprised cause execution is not a strong suit of this government. Next thing I am expecting to see on the socials is “but but but Harper”.
Harper has been hanging out (and Xing about it) with his old buddy Viktor Orbán. So yeah, it’s still but but but Harper. So embarrassing. I did like Orbán’s tie though.
Poor Johnathon Wilkinson, so many trees to plant and so little time that in four years from announcement to recent number reporting he and his colleagues have basically planted zero trees under the two billion tree program. I dare say I have planted more than Wilkinson and PM. Not that they will cool the planet but add a little greenery and shade around the property.
Great insight into the reality of Canadas tree planting programs as carbon mitigation strategies. Here in BC, federal/provincial tree planting under the Forest carbon program has mostly been on lands affected by fire. However, these forests will usually reforest themselves so the real carbon benefit is not that high. A recent study found that rehabilitating forests (ie site preparation and planting) did sequester carbon but not immediately. The authors then concluded “Our results suggest that mitigation efforts might be better directed at reducing wildfire risks and emissions in the first place, rather than rehabilitating post-fire outcomes”. https://www.sciencedirect.com/science/article/pii/S037811272200723X#:~:text=In%20British%20Columbia%2C%20Canada%2C%20our,that%20is%20incurred%20from%20harvest
Basically in Canada only some sites like old roads or seismic lines are really good candidates to sequester carbon. Unless the 2 billion trees are focussed on these truly degraded sites, the benefits are pretty marginal. But..these kind of degraded sites are expensive to reforest and federal funding does not cover the high costs of site prep on those hard to reforest sites.
So, planting trees sounds great, but unless done on the right sites, and usually at a high cost, it’s a marginal carbon benefit.
There was a huge logjam at the passport offices yet the government still charges more for a 10 year passport than for a 5 year one., why ? Because ... ????
The whole 2 billion tree planting was just a PR fix in the first place, gotta get Gretta on board with just how cool the Trudeau gov't is, it will make NDP voters come over to their side.
Empty suits with empty promises never get results. I do, however, admire their PR skills at pretending their sow's ear is indeed a silk purse. The emperor has no clothes !
Thanks Paul for digging through the murk and pointing this out.
Like many Canadians I am more than tired of Justin and is constant tap dancing and lack of transparency with people. There are so many problems now and none of our leaders seem to have any intelligent solution to offer.
"Fortunately I have a newsletter." This was an excellent sentence, worth a chuckle. Fortunate are your readers.
You are a kind wordsmith, stripped away from niceness these ministers tell fibs. They need their departments to invent/shuffle numbers and phrasing for appearances. It is getting tiresome.
Thanks for the suggestion. I think I did, but that seems so long ago now, and I never had any positive expectations about Harper. But I get your point.
Thank goodness for hard working journalists who keep digging. Enough fatuous virtue signaling. Too bad the opposition is even worse on this question. It would be so easy to give in to despair.
There's a name for this: hoodwinking. And it is practised more and more, by governments of every stripe and – wait for it – big industries, too! As ordinary citizens, the sheer volume of complex, often conflicting, information we must process every day in order to feel ourselves relatively well informed and conversant with current crises and events is growing exponentially. This is where hoodwinking becomes not only possible, but an art form. A very recent topical example comes to us from the New York Times about how Big Oil is essentially blowing smoke (sorry) about their supposed commitment to a commitment to a carbon-neutral future (https://www.nytimes.com/2023/08/07/opinion/oil-fossil-fuels-clean-energy.html09). This is nothing new, of course. Orwell described it perfectly.
Your article inspired me to go directly to the minister's announcement and was encouraged to read that the hair splitting in the media was somewhat misleading. The issues noted in the article and the comments appear to be addressed in the government report although requiring careful reading.
Note the key word: "cumulative"
"In the two years since the 2BT program was launched, over 110 million trees have been planted, including trees planted through the Low Carbon Economy Fund (LCEF).
This means that the Government is exceeding its cumulative planting goal to date and is well on track to deliver on its commitment to plant 2 billion trees over ten years."
Seven provinces and territories have already signed significant Agreements in Principle and 179 Projects have been funded at more than 2900 sites. Certainly a long way to go but an element of positivity in the MSM would be helpful. Once the usual recalcitrant provinces, Ontario and Quebec, get on board, real progress will start to show.
Jonathan Wilkinson sat in Cabinet and remained silent while Jane Philpott was kicked out of the Liberal party. He may be a ‘serious minister’ but he’s stayed in Cabinet by doing what the PMO tells him too. If the communication strategy involves creative accounting, his past behaviour shows this will not trouble him.
It would be nice if the policy debate on the usefulness of the tree planting program could be resolved by science and measurements and rational policy debate. Presumably some level of tree planting is good, but perhaps decreasing returns above some threshold...
Seems similar to debate on appropriate levels for immigration (none is demonstrably bad, but too much can also cause harm).
Thanks for the thoughtful reporting.
“That’s it. That’s the tweet” was a phrase the cool kids, and those working hard to join them, were putting in their tweets that year for emphasis." made me cackle
Me too! 😁
Paul love this analysis its why I subscribed. Don’t know why anybody is surprised cause execution is not a strong suit of this government. Next thing I am expecting to see on the socials is “but but but Harper”.
Harper has been hanging out (and Xing about it) with his old buddy Viktor Orbán. So yeah, it’s still but but but Harper. So embarrassing. I did like Orbán’s tie though.
Thanks to Boris Proulx for helping us to see the forest for the trees.
this is the kind of sober analysis I am here for
Poor Johnathon Wilkinson, so many trees to plant and so little time that in four years from announcement to recent number reporting he and his colleagues have basically planted zero trees under the two billion tree program. I dare say I have planted more than Wilkinson and PM. Not that they will cool the planet but add a little greenery and shade around the property.
Legit LOL at “those working hard to join them”
At this point it's looking more & more like planting more trees is adding more fuel to the fire.
Great insight into the reality of Canadas tree planting programs as carbon mitigation strategies. Here in BC, federal/provincial tree planting under the Forest carbon program has mostly been on lands affected by fire. However, these forests will usually reforest themselves so the real carbon benefit is not that high. A recent study found that rehabilitating forests (ie site preparation and planting) did sequester carbon but not immediately. The authors then concluded “Our results suggest that mitigation efforts might be better directed at reducing wildfire risks and emissions in the first place, rather than rehabilitating post-fire outcomes”. https://www.sciencedirect.com/science/article/pii/S037811272200723X#:~:text=In%20British%20Columbia%2C%20Canada%2C%20our,that%20is%20incurred%20from%20harvest
Basically in Canada only some sites like old roads or seismic lines are really good candidates to sequester carbon. Unless the 2 billion trees are focussed on these truly degraded sites, the benefits are pretty marginal. But..these kind of degraded sites are expensive to reforest and federal funding does not cover the high costs of site prep on those hard to reforest sites.
So, planting trees sounds great, but unless done on the right sites, and usually at a high cost, it’s a marginal carbon benefit.
Typical federal government bs.
There was a huge logjam at the passport offices yet the government still charges more for a 10 year passport than for a 5 year one., why ? Because ... ????
The whole 2 billion tree planting was just a PR fix in the first place, gotta get Gretta on board with just how cool the Trudeau gov't is, it will make NDP voters come over to their side.
Empty suits with empty promises never get results. I do, however, admire their PR skills at pretending their sow's ear is indeed a silk purse. The emperor has no clothes !
Thanks Paul for digging through the murk and pointing this out.
Like many Canadians I am more than tired of Justin and is constant tap dancing and lack of transparency with people. There are so many problems now and none of our leaders seem to have any intelligent solution to offer.
"Fortunately I have a newsletter." This was an excellent sentence, worth a chuckle. Fortunate are your readers.
You are a kind wordsmith, stripped away from niceness these ministers tell fibs. They need their departments to invent/shuffle numbers and phrasing for appearances. It is getting tiresome.
The lyingist government of my lifetime.
Thanks for the suggestion. I think I did, but that seems so long ago now, and I never had any positive expectations about Harper. But I get your point.
Thank goodness for hard working journalists who keep digging. Enough fatuous virtue signaling. Too bad the opposition is even worse on this question. It would be so easy to give in to despair.
There's a name for this: hoodwinking. And it is practised more and more, by governments of every stripe and – wait for it – big industries, too! As ordinary citizens, the sheer volume of complex, often conflicting, information we must process every day in order to feel ourselves relatively well informed and conversant with current crises and events is growing exponentially. This is where hoodwinking becomes not only possible, but an art form. A very recent topical example comes to us from the New York Times about how Big Oil is essentially blowing smoke (sorry) about their supposed commitment to a commitment to a carbon-neutral future (https://www.nytimes.com/2023/08/07/opinion/oil-fossil-fuels-clean-energy.html09). This is nothing new, of course. Orwell described it perfectly.
Your article inspired me to go directly to the minister's announcement and was encouraged to read that the hair splitting in the media was somewhat misleading. The issues noted in the article and the comments appear to be addressed in the government report although requiring careful reading.
Note the key word: "cumulative"
"In the two years since the 2BT program was launched, over 110 million trees have been planted, including trees planted through the Low Carbon Economy Fund (LCEF).
This means that the Government is exceeding its cumulative planting goal to date and is well on track to deliver on its commitment to plant 2 billion trees over ten years."
Seven provinces and territories have already signed significant Agreements in Principle and 179 Projects have been funded at more than 2900 sites. Certainly a long way to go but an element of positivity in the MSM would be helpful. Once the usual recalcitrant provinces, Ontario and Quebec, get on board, real progress will start to show.