Even then, when the next national breakdown of deforestation by industry is published in the 2016 annual report to Parliament on the State of Canada’s Forests, the new data will cover only 2011 and 2012.
The latest State of Canada’s Forests report, tabled in the House of Commons by Natural Resources Minister Greg Rickford (Kenora, Ont.) on Sept. 24, disclosed that the oil and gas industry was the only sector that showed a trend of increased deforestation up to the year 2010, with 11,100 hectares destroyed that year compared to 400 hectares in 1990.
The oil and gas industry deforestation, while small compared to the natural destruction of the northern boreal forest by fire and mountain pines by beetle infestations, is a sensitive issue for the Harper government as it battles environmentally-based opposition to rapid expansion of oil sands mining and extracting in the oil sands region around Fort McMurray, Alta.
As well, while resource-related displacement of the forest areas was a comparatively small contribution to the increase of Canada’s greenhouse gas accumulation in the atmosphere due to the loss of carbon sink potential, it is significant in terms of public attitudes toward the wider contribution of oilsands mining and upgrading to the country’s increase in the buildup of greenhouse gases that contribute to climate change.
During attempts by The Hill Times to discover why Natural Resources did not include a breakdown of industry sector deforestation for either 2011 or 2012 in the latest report on Canadian forests, the department’s media relations branch, speaking on behalf of the department, disclosed that even those two years will not be included in the annual reports until 2016.
As well, while the media branch told The Hill Times that a new “mapping” system for accumulating the data over a longer time period had been established in 2009, the report histories on the department’s website show the new time frames began under the then newly-appointed Natural Resources minister, Conservative MP Joe Oliver (Eglinton-Lawrence, Ont.) in 2011.
Mr. Oliver was appointed Finance Minister after the death of former finance minister Jim Flaherty in April.
The department also suggested, in an email exchange over several days with The Hill Times, that the rate of deforestation by the oil and gas industry is expected to level out over the next few years—despite industry government forecasts that oilsands extraction and mining will increase significantly.
“The current mapping period is from 2008 to 2012 and is planned for completion in time for the National Inventory Report (NIR) 2016,” said spokesperson Michelle Aron, referring to a sweeping national report the federal government prepares annually on greenhouse gas emissions and related economic activities and sectors, which also includes the data used in the state of Canada’s forests reports.
“Deforestation estimates from a sample mapped within a time period (e.g. five years), not annually,” Ms. Aron said in an email as she passed the information on to The Hill Times from experts or bureaucrats within the department.
“Until the mapping is complete for a time period, estimated rates of deforestation are based on trends from other time periods,” Ms. Aron said.
“Deforestation from oil sands is reported and included in the estimates but it is set at the same rate as last mapped. Any increase or decrease in rate will be captured and reported when the next mapping period is complete. Oil sands, captured in the oil and gas sector, will also be update in the next mapping period,” Ms. Aaron said.
At one point, the department provided, through one of the emails, a graph of industry deforestation that included the same figures for 2011 and 2012 as the 2010 figures from the 2014 report Mr. Rickford tabled in September.
“We have added data for the years 2011 and 2012,” Ms. Aaron said in the email. “Mapping for the current period is still in progress but we do not expect significant changes.”
Asked whether the department was saying there was no growth in deforestation in any industry sector for the years 2011 and 2012, Ms. Aron replied on behalf of the department: “We are estimating the deforestation trends in 2011 and 2012 based on observations over the past decade. These years are in the process of being updated based on sampling and will be reported in subsequent years.”
The 2009 federal report on the state of Canada’s forests, tabled by then natural resources minister Lisa Raitt (Halton, Ont.), included industry breakdowns on deforestation for 1980, 1983, 1990, 1995, 2006, and 2007.
The 2010 report on deforestation, tabled by then Natural Resources minister Christian Paradis (Mégantic-L’Érable, Que.), covered the years 1990, 1995, 2000, 2006, 2007, and 2008.
Mr. Oliver, who was recruited by Prime Minister Stephen Harper (Calgary Southwest, Alta.) to run in the May 2, 2011, federal election and was appointed natural resources minister later that month to take charge of the government’s natural resources and oilsands files, tabled the first report using the new five-year time periods for reporting on Sept. 21, 2011.
The same oil and gas sector deforestation totals for the year 2010 were included in that report, and have not since then.
NDP MP Megan Leslie (Halifax, N.S.) deplored the fact that oil and gas industry deforestation reports, and other sectors, have not been updated beyond 2010 and will not be until 2016.
“I think that it’s unacceptable that the public, experts and policy makers would have a delay of five years before they have the facts about deforestation when we have long known that the problem in the oil and gas sector has clearly been getting worse,” she said in an email to The Hill Times.
“When a major problem like deforestation from oil and gas development has been identified as early as 1995, and then the problem escalates in 2000 all the way to 2010, you don’t bury your head in the sand and stop monitoring the situation—you increase the monitoring and reporting of the facts.”
Original Article
Source: hilltimes.com/
Author: Tim Naumetz
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