Quebec Asks Canadian Federal Government for Extra Log Harvesting Rights to Compensate for Last Year’s Wildfires

The Canadian Federal Government has committed to planting two billion trees across the country to restore natural habitats and fight climate change, and now Quebec wants to harvest some of them, Canada’s National Observer/The Canadian Press reported (2-26-24).

Quebec is asking Ottawa to allow the local forestry industry to eventually harvest trees in areas of the province hardest hit by last year’s forest fires.

Ottawa has committed more than $3 billion (CAD) to help provinces, territories, and organizations plant two billion trees by the end of 2031, as part of a national effort to reduce greenhouse gas emissions. While the program does not fund trees designated for commercial use, Quebec says more federal help is needed to supplement provincial aid for beleaguered forestry companies and the regions that depend on them.

Citing that wildfires had destroyed 1.1 million hectares of forest in the southern half of Quebec during the spring and summer of 2023, Quebec’s Natural Resources and Forests Minister Maïté Blanchette Vézina sent a letter, co-signed by more than 100 Quebec municipalities and forestry industry associations and unions, to her federal counterpart, Energy and Natural Resources Minister Jonathan Wilkinson, asking Ottawa to allow the trees to be harvested and used in the production of green building materials.

In response, a spokesperson for Wilkinson told Canada’s National Observer that “The 2 Billion Trees program is designed to permanently increase the amount of trees and forest cover in Canada. We have been clear that this program does not fund projects that plant trees just for them to be cut or harvested.”