A Transcona man was told by the City of Winnipeg he would have to wait a dozen years to get the tree in front of his home trimmed, a timeline he says is unacceptable.
Michael Whittaker decided to contact the city earlier this summer when the sweeping branches from a tree on the front boulevard started to get out of hand.
He said he called the city to request that a crew come prune the tree, but was told he would have to wait.
“I asked if they were joking. I then said you must mean 12 weeks. When she said 12 years that’s when I asked to speak to a supervisor. Spoke to a supervisor and he reiterated 12 years. I told him that was unacceptable and he said that’s just the way it was,” Whittaker said.
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The branches were at risk of falling, causing injury or damage to property, said Whittaker, and he wondered why there isn’t more money set aside to fix the problem.
“Why are we paying taxes? I understand our taxes are very complicated but this is their property, this is their tree, allocate the money wisely,” he said.
The city said the wait could actually be more than double what Whittaker was quoted.
“The city will assess priority, and if it is general pruning and determined to be low priority, it could take about 27 years to be addressed,” said a spokesperson from the city.
“If a tree is situated within a neighbourhood that the city is pruning that year, it would be addressed within the year,”
The city blames funding being funneled to combat invasive species such as Dutch elm disease and the emerald ash borer beetle.
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Whittaker said there had been a crew on the other side of the street taking care of another tree, but they were unable to also take care of his tree when he asked them about it.
“The crew was across the street, not even 50 feet away, and they couldn’t open up a work order and just move the equipment 50 feet up the road and just take care of the problem”.
After two months he took matters into his own hands and climbed up on a ladder to take down some of the limbs.
Norbert Peter, Whittaker’s neighbour across the street, was given the same timeline for pruning his tree a couple years ago. But the city came after a few months instead.
“I don’t know where they even get the 12 years from. It shouldn’t be done in 12 years. If they’re slow and behind it shouldn’t take more than three months for them to come out and fix any kind of trees and property lines or anything of that nature,” Peter said.
The city says if home owners don’t want to wait, they can hire a private contractor at their own expense.
In February the Winnipeg’s forester Martha Barwinsky said Winnipeg is the only city in North America battling both Dutch elm and the emerald ash borer beetle.
“When you look at even just the public trees with Dutch elm disease and emerald ash borer, you’re looking at over 60 per cent of our canopy from boulevards and in parks. That represents a significant part of our urban forest,” she said.
The price tag associated with trying to save the canopy is high. It will cost $105 million over the next decade just to fight the emerald ash borer beetle.
A report from the city says it will take $90 million over the next 10 years managing the dead trees on city property while an additional $15 million will be spent managing the wood waste from the tree removals.
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