The upcoming city council meeting will see a discussion looking at the feasibility of building an orchard in Thunder Bay, and growing trees in the renewed Conservatory green house.

This was brought forward by At-Large Councillor Peng You, who is hoping council decides to have a report prepared looking at the estimated costs of the project, as well as the potential that it would save money down the road.

Councillor You shares why he felt it was so important to bring this forward to the city.

“We have to realize Thunder Bay needs to have more options,” explains You. “We do need to have a lot of trees, for a our net zero strategy we need 100,000 trees in the next 25 to 30 years. Also, every year we replace trees and we have to buy from Southern Ontario, but they don’t always have what we need.”

The Councillor builds off this point, saying there are issues that come with buying trees from outside the region.

“Every year, there are many trees we can not get because the climate here is different than Southern Ontario, it does not work for us.”

You concluded by saying there is ample space in the city to be able to build an orchard.

“Thunder Bay you know has no shortage of land, and places for certain trees where we can put them,” says You. “We can find so many locations for the proposal, and I hope administration brings forward some good recommendations for city council.”