City council will look at the possibility of planting more trees and building an orchard in Thunder Bay.
The idea was brought forward by At-Large Councillor Peng You with the original motion looking at potentially planting in the renewed Conservatory greenhouses.
An amendment early in the discussion eliminated the greenhouses from the conversation with Northwood Ward Councillor Shelby Ch’ng one of the individuals to raise their concerns.
“I’m almost positive we do not have capacity for this in the Conservatory, however I do believe that the goal of planting more trees in the city is admirable and that we need to do it,” Ch’ng said.
It was then considered whether the city would be staffed well enough to handle a project such as this if council decided to go through with it in the future.
Supervisor of Parks & Open Space Planning Werner Schwar provided estimates, though explained it would be easier to understand once the report returns to council.
“Speaking to Mike Dixon, our Supervisor of Foresty and Horticulture, his initial thoughts were that it would be close to being possible with existing compliment, though it may have to shift some priorities around,” says Schwar. “Part of the issue is really dependent on where the trees can be grown because this initiative would involve quite a bit of land to be able to accomplish it over a long period of time. If there was close land in the city that was suitable, that would greatly reduce things such as transportation costs or infrastructure, so it’s not a straight forward answer, but it may be possible.”
Council then looked at whether growing their own trees would spark a competition, with Director of Engineering & Operations Kayla Dixon stressing the city does things very similar to this already.
“As far as competing, certainly because we would be looking at supplying our own trees for ourselves it wouldn’t exactly be a competition,” explains Dixon. “For example, we do other operational efforts ourselves whether that be fixing watermain breaks or filling potholes so it would be something similar to that.”
The discussion turned to whether or not Thunder Bay would be able to sell trees to other municipalities.
It was quickly determined there was not a simple answer and it would be something that needs to be directed to the legal services team.
Planting more trees throughout Thunder Bay would also follow the recent green initiatives the city is implementing, including the Net Zero strategy.
