Out on a limb: Ottawa is falling behind on its promise to plant 2 billion trees

The federal government did not meet the targets for its program to plant two billion trees during the program's third planting season.

Numbers provided by Natural Resources Canada show Ottawa did not meet its annual planting and spending targets for the 2023-24 growing season.

Ottawa and its partners were supposed to plant 60 million trees last season but only got 46.6 million saplings in the ground.

Despite the program's slow rollout, a spokesperson for Natural Resources Minister Jonathan Wilkinson's office insisted it will still reach its 2030-31 target.

"We remain on track to plant two billion trees, a key part of our efforts to combat climate change, support biodiversity and create jobs," said Cindy Caturao, the minister's press secretary.

Caturao said the program is complex and requires a lot of time to collect seeds, build up nursery operations and prepare sites. She said the first few years since the program began in 2021 have been focused on "jump-starting" efforts to source and plant seeds to produce saplings.

While she said the planting eventually will accelerate, Caturao added external issues have acted as a drag on the program.

"Of course, pandemic-related economic, travel and supply-chain constraints have touched partners, as have wildfire conditions — underscoring the need to fight climate change and protect nature," she said.

The federal government says it has gotten 157.6 million trees in the ground since planting began in 2021. That's more than the 150 million trees it was supposed to have planted by this point — but that number also includes 54 million trees planted through separate programs like Environment and Climate Change Canada's Low Carbon Economy Fund.

Jerry DeMarco, federal commissioner of the environment and sustainable development, has called the addition of trees planted under separate programs "creative accounting."

The government now has only seven growing seasons left to plant more than 1.8 billion trees.

The government said earlier this month it had agreements signed or under negotiation to plant 716 million more trees.

Prime Minister Justin Trudeau announced the planting program during the 2019 election campaign. It's backed by a funding commitment of $3.2 billion over 10 years.

For the second year in a row, NRCAN spent less money on the program than it was allocated in the 2023-24 planting season — $117.5 million, instead of the $285 million budgeted.