Toronto will try to prune trees along with its budget, Mayor Tory says

TheGlobeandMail.com
Aug. 10, 2016
By Jeff Gray and Jill Mahoney

Despite his across-the-board push to trim the budget, Mayor John Tory says the City of Toronto would consider increasing tree maintenance if it can find the money.

The city’s tree-maintenance program has been in the spotlight since a falling branch at Trinity Bellwoods Park killed a 30-year-old man from France in June.

Mr. Tory said that while even one death is too many, he believes the city’s urban forestry division is doing everything it can to spot and care for potentially dangerous trees, given its resources. And he said his call for all city departments to propose 2.6-per-cent cuts from their 2016 budget levels does not mean a multi-year plan to ramp up tree pruning will be slashed or further delayed.

“I am satisfied that they are doing what they should be doing, that they are stepping up the pace of maintenance as best they can,” Mr. Tory said in an interview. “I am sure if we can find the resources, they’ll be stepping up that campaign further.”

Toronto’s urban forestry department has been increasing its annual tree maintenance budget from next-to-nothing more than a decade ago to more than $22-million this year. But as a recent Globe and Mail investigation into the state of the city’s trees revealed, Toronto has fallen well shy of a goal set in 2008 to prune all its trees every seven years on average by 2016. It now prunes them every 15 years on average, and only plans to hit its target by 2023.

The Globe also found that falling tree limbs have injured or killed at least 20 people in Toronto in the past seven years, and the city has paid more than $2-million in liability claims.

Mr. Tory defended the city’s efforts, and said that in a city like Toronto, with more than four million publicly managed trees and budget pressures from various directions, the urban forestry department cannot be expected to prune every potentially problematic tree.

“One could always argue that ... no matter how fast a time period that you had, it wasn’t fast enough,” he said. “But you know on the other side of that is the fact that there’s a huge number of trees in Toronto. And it would never be possible, no matter how quickly you did maintenance, to make sure any particular tree had been maintained just before somebody happened to be standing under it. Trees don’t talk.”

He said the proposed 2.6-per-cent decrease would be imposed on a department-wide level, meaning the parks department could suggest an increase in funding for tree pruning and a decrease elsewhere. Or, he said, parks staff could find new ways to trim more trees for less money.

“We have not said any of those [efficiencies] would be accepted. We’ve not said they would be implemented. We’ve simply said we want to see them. And the forestry department and all other departments of the city are going about that exercise,” Mr. Tory said. “But it’s a long way from an approved budget. And I can only say that in my own case that I am completely committed to making sure that people are safe, that the trees are maintained in a healthy manner.”

Mr. Tory also defended the forestry department’s practice of relying on residents to report problem trees: “We rely on citizens to report crimes to us or to report suspicious activities. We rely on citizens to report potholes in the roads. We couldn’t possibly have enough city employees to go around when it comes to something like the tree population that we have, and tell us every tree they think is in trouble.”