John Redins
Yes.
Hussein Mahmoud
Yes. The federal government has committed to planting 2 billion trees across Canada in the next 10 years. I think is important that we ensure we are making the most out of supports from other levels of government, and collaborate with other governments to support cost-sharing and smart fiscal planning to achieve our goals for a greener city. In order to promote a healthy lifestyle and greener communities, we need to provide well planned urban greenery - but we also need to work collaboratively with other levels of government to ensure we are making the most out of pre-existing programs.
Taylor Houstoun
Yes. Again, this question is nuanced. Broadly speaking 'Yes', but as we saw with the recent storm, mature trees under an extreme weather event can cause tens of thousands in damages per-household and millions city-wide in merely 30 minutes.
Pragmatically what we need is a consistent tree renewal strategy that allows for the removal of older, dangerous, or disruptive trees (as some will grow into property, significantly damaging housing which necessitate repairs), and replacing them with newer, less mono-cultured varieties.
I would also set 40% as an ideal target but would leave it up to individual neighbourhoods to decide what they want and where they want them, with space allocated for non-treed space. For example, in my area some our fields were co-opted for Canada's 150 tree supply. But this now means that kids can't run around and play in them. There is a place for everything...
Beyond this, I entirely agree that we should work toward not only reasonable tree canopy, but much greater diversity. The city has long chosen to plan the same species of tree, often only a select group of maples, neglecting others. We should have a large diversity of trees to fill out our neighbourhood canopy, and we also need to rethink our use of fruit trees. The city currently has no qualms planting crab apple, and its fruit is plentiful. But it largely goes to waste because humans don't eat crab apples frequently. We need to consider planting proper fruit trees and put residents in charge of them under forward-thinking community garden strategies.
Ron Keays
Yes. On both a pragmatic and aesthetic basis adequate tree canopy cover absolutely needs to be enforced by incoming council.
Aria Alavi
Did not participate.
Jessica Bradley
Did not participate.