Montreal announces $18M to fight emerald ash borer
City plans to plant more trees to replace infected ash

cbc.ca
April 5, 2016

The City of Montreal is devoting $18 million to fight the spread of the emerald ash borer and to plant new trees.

"We're winning the war," said Real Menard, the city's executive committee member in charge of sustainable development.

It's not the first time that Montreal has taken measures to the fight the beetle that infests ash trees and eats them from the inside.

The city has provided over $15 million over a three-year period to combat the infestation and plant new trees to replace the infested trees it had to cut down.

Opposition Projet Montreal says the city is downplaying the size of the problem.

"Real Menard believes the situation is under control, but the data shows the complete opposite," Projet Montreal city councillor Sylvain Ouellet said.

"The ash borer has spread all around Montreal," Ouellet added. "We need to cut all the ash trees that are not in [such] good shape in a 300-metre radius - so it's really huge."