The Province of Ontario is launching Ontario’s Green Leaf Challenge with the goal of planting millions of additional trees in 2017 to mark Ontario’s 150th anniversary.
“I’m glad to hear that the government is launching Ontario’s Green Leaf Challenge in response to our private member’s resolution,” said Wellington-Halton Hills MPP Ted Arnott in a press release.
“While we would have liked to see a more ambitious tree planting target, this is welcome News.”
Arnott, who has worked in recent years with Wellington County to push the provincial government to expand its tree planting efforts, added county staff and successive county councils deserve enormous credit for their commitment to the Green Legacy program.
“(Wellington) County has been a real leader when it comes to municipal tree planting,” he said.
“Since they launched the Green Legacy program in 2004, it has grown into the largest municipal tree planting program in North America and has even been recognized by the United Nations for its success.”
Warden Dennis Lever said, “The Green Legacy program has planted over two million trees with the help of community partners since the program’s inception in 2004.”
In June 2015, Arnott initiated the idea of an Ontario Green Legacy program, calling on the provincial government to massively expand Ontario’s tree planting efforts beginning in 2017 to celebrate Ontario’s 150th anniversary as a province within Canada.
Arnott then followed up with a private member’s resolution in the Ontario legislature calling on the government to establish an Ontario Green Legacy program.
On March 29, natural resources minister Kathryn McGarry approached Mr. Arnott in the legislature to personally give him a letter announcing the launch of Ontario’s Green Leaf Challenge.
She also gave him a white pine seedling suitable for planting.
“I’d like to thank Forests Ontario for being a champion of this cause and the member from Wellington–Halton Hills for his continued efforts to support his residents to get involved in local tree-planting efforts through the County of Wellington’s Green Legacy program,” the minister said the following day in the Legislature.
Arnott stated, “If everyone in Ontario were to plant just one tree, we could exceed the ministry’s targets by 10 million trees.
“By planting more trees, we can all do our part to help confront the challenge represented by climate change, while at the same time help make our province a better place, both now and for future generations.”
