Tree Bylaw Motion Final Results (June 2023)

Last month I wrote about a motion I made to look at creating a tree protection bylaw or policy. The motion came back before council yesterday and I worked with Councillor Tim Cartmell to help rewrite it to make it more clear. Here is what council voted on yesterday:

"That Administration provide a report that includes a work plan to a bylaw that would protect trees on private land during development/redevelopment and that the report includes:

- Potential new and/or changes to existing bylaws, regulations and policies, community outreach, public education, operational and enforcement resources and budget adjustment needed to support program implementation and promote compliance; and

- An implementation plan that outlines a phased approach, resources required, associated budget."

This motion was rewritten to make it more clear that we are focused on trying to address the clear cutting of a lot when a lot is being developed or redeveloped. The motion was meant to provide a report with draft options that council could consider later next year.

Unfortunately, the motion failed on a 6-6 tie (Mayor Sohi was away on City business).

I'm disappointed that we won't get to consider these options as this has been something that residents have been raising with me since I started serving on council almost 10 years ago. There were separate motions last month that council did approve that will continue to work on the incentive side of things and should also provide better data around tree preservation going forward. This will help inform future changes and it also could provide an opportunity for future councils to reconsider some type of tree protection bylaw.

Thanks to everyone for your advocacy on this over the years and I'm sorry we couldn't advance this work to the next step but I'll do what I can to try and help with preservation using other tools.