Canada nowhere near target of planting 2B trees by 2030
Darpan News Desk The Canadian Press, 20 Apr, 2023 10:15 AM
Canada's environment commissioner says the country is nowhere near to meeting its goal of planting two-billion trees by 2030.
The Liberals first made the massive tree-planting promise during the 2019 federal election campaign and followed through with a 10-year 3.2-billion-dollar budget for it in 2020.
However, an audit of the first two years of planting says it appears the government isn't on track to get even four per cent of the promised trees in the ground by the end of 2030.
B.C.'s Housing Ministry says the escalating cost of housing is "concerning" and it will review the report. The B.C. government's housing plan includes cracking down on tax fraud, a vacancy tax and building tens of thousands of new homes, it says.
About 15 centimetres of snow blanketed Metro Vancouver overnight and almost double that amount was recorded at Victoria International airport as the latest storm slammed British Columbia's south coast. Airports in Vancouver and Victoria were reporting early delays and telling travellers to check with their airlines and all transit services were suspended in Greater Victoria.
Under normal conditions, the ministry uses a cable-collar system to remove snow that builds up on the cables of the Alex Fraser and Port Mann bridges so traffic can safely pass. However, high winds can increase the shedding of snow and pose a risk to the rope technicians. This prevents them from deploying the system.
There are 29,967 active cases of COVID-19 in the province, and 237,195 people who tested positive have recovered. Of the active cases, 317 individuals are in hospital and 83 are in intensive care. The remaining people are recovering at home in self-isolation.
Videos of the Dec. 30 Sunwing private charter flight shared on social media show passengers not wearing masks as they gather in close proximity, drinking alcohol and vaping in the aisle and on seats.
The federal NDP's critic for economic development has written to the heads of Canada's biggest supermarkets asking them to restore "pandemic pay," which was brought in after COVID-19 first struck and then cancelled.