Reforestation plans around Parliament Hill have been cancelled due to the high cost of the project.
Just days after inviting potential contractors to tour a planned job site on Parliament Hill, the Department of Public Works has cancelled a four-year reforestation project on the treed slopes behind the Parliament Buildings, saying the controversial, $9-million proposal was too expensive.
Federal documents called for the removal of all invasive vegetation, such as Norway and Manitoba maples, buckthorn, and periwinkle, which were to be replaced by more desirable vegetation such as red maples, jack pines, and snowberry shrubs.
The invasive species were to be removed during the winter and replaced in spring with plant material “free of disease, insects, defects or injuries,” and trees “with straight trunks, well and characteristically branched,” according to the documents.
The plan called for contractors to perform other duties, as well, such as chemical control of vegetation and maintenance work to ensure the health of plant life.
“The contract is too expensive, that is why (Public Works) Minister (Rona) Ambrose has instructed the department to cancel the contract immediately,” said Michelle Bakos, Ambrose’s director of communications, in an email.
Contractors bidding for the reforestation job had met with Public Works officials at Parliament Hill on Oct. 19, just a day before the project was scrapped, for a tour of the area’s slopes.
“We do a lot of work for Public Works and we like working for guys that pay you,” Kevin Brady, senior project manager at D & G Landscaping, said with a laugh at the time.
The tour gave the contractors the chance to see what the tender documents only outlined. Overgrown foliage and wild terrain dominated the steep hillsides of one of Canada’s most recognizable landscapes.
“The slope of the Hill is pretty steep so it will be a challenging project,” Jérôme Lecourt, project manager and engineer at Meyknecht-Lischer Contractors Ltd, had said prior to the project’s cancellation. “But, apart from that, it’s pretty standard, I guess.”
The contract bids were to be due by Nov. 1 at 2 p.m., but the “standard” project could have had significant environmental consequences, according to Ottawa naturalist Dan Brunton.
His concerns, which were also reported in the Ottawa Citizen following the announcement of the tender, were followed a day later by Ambrose’s decision to halt the project.
“This kind of program has significant disturbance value,” Brunton says, adding that cutting that much forest in a four-year period would make the slope more vulnerable to erosion and soil run-off into the Ottawa River.
Brunton says his opposition to the four-year plan doesn't mean he is against the reforestation. In fact, he says, he is in favour of a project that will remove the invasive vegetation growing on the slopes of Parliament Hill.
“I’m a huge fan of habitat restoration and rehabilitation,” he says.
He proposes a solution that could involve 20 years of work but takes into account the stability of the slopes. He explains that cutting smaller amounts of cover at a time over a period of many years would not cause the stability problems resulting from a short-term job.
A long-term, environmentally-conscious project would also cut down on the cost of remedying ecological problems stemming from erosion and run-off, he says.
“Here’s a good opportunity for them to re-think the whole scale of the thing,” he says. “Make it more economical. Make it more effective. This is what we want.”
The escarpment behind Parliament Hill still needs to be reinforced because of erosion, and the federal government indicated some work in the area will still be undertaken.
“Public Works officials have been instructed to find a more affordable way to address this problem,” said Bakos.