Tree Removal Permits by Municipality: Which Canadian Cities Require One for a Tree on Private Property

Six of the nineteen municipalities in this comparison publish no private-tree permit requirement at all. This is not an oversight in the table; it is the finding that makes the table worth publishing, because it is the half of the country that generic advice quietly ignores.

Calgary is the clearest statement of the position. The City's page on tree by-laws says there is no specific by-law governing the management of trees on private property, and that such matters are considered issues between the respective private property owners. Its Tree Protection Bylaw covers City trees, with fines of $100 to $500, and for anything complicated on private land the City recommends consulting an arborist certified by the International Society of Arboriculture.

Saskatoon answers the question directly in its own FAQ: the Tree Protection Bylaw applies only to trees on City property. What makes Saskatoon instructive is that its penalties are serious — up to $10,000 for an individual and $25,000 for a corporation for illegal removal of a City tree — which demonstrates that a tough tree by-law and a private-tree permit are entirely separate questions.

Edmonton's Public Tree Bylaw 18825 likewise covers City land and City easements only, including the road right-of-way at the front of a property. But it carries a catch that Prairie homeowners routinely miss: a Public Tree Permit is required for work planned within 5 metres of a boulevard tree trunk or 10 metres of a natural stand boundary, and the City names deck construction, garage builds, fencing and irrigation installation as the kind of private-property work that can trigger it. Minimum fines start at $1,000.

If you are already pulling paperwork for the structure itself, that check belongs in the same conversation as whether your deck needs a permit.

Regina's published tree rules address City-owned trees, and no private-tree permit requirement was found on the City's own domain at retrieval. The same is true of Winnipeg. Both are recorded here as unverified rather than confirmed exemptions, which is a meaningful difference: absence of evidence on a municipal website is not the same as a published exemption, and a phone call to 311 costs nothing.

Moncton is the most interesting of the group because its by-law exists and still does not touch the typical homeowner. Tree Protection By-Law Z-1624 prohibits destroying trees on vacant lots without a building, development or subdivision permit, and the City's own FAQ says it "does not apply to a lot that's already developed, e.g. the lot your house is on." Penalties run to $400 per tree destroyed or per 50 square metres of woody vegetation cleared, doubling in court and rising again for corporations. Moncton has also signalled that a more detailed by-law is expected alongside its new Municipal Development Plan.

The permit is not the end of the transaction. In every permitting municipality in this table, approval comes attached to a replanting obligation, and in several it comes attached to money held back until the replacement survives.

Mississauga requires one replacement tree for every 15 centimetres of diameter removed — three trees for a 45-centimetre tree — secured by a refundable deposit returned only after an inspection confirms the replacement is healthy one year on. Ottawa requires 1:1 replacement for non-development removals, rising to 2:1 and 3:1 for distinctive trees in infill development, and accepts financial compensation where the required trees cannot be accommodated on site. Surrey may require two replacement trees per tree removed. Victoria charges $2,000 cash-in-lieu for each replacement that will not fit, the highest per-tree figure in this comparison. Burnaby directs its cash-in-lieu into a Civic Tree Reserve Fund. Montreal gives you six months and specifies the replacement's minimum size.

Timelines are the other obligation, and they are the one most likely to collide with a contractor's schedule. Mississauga allows itself 30 business days to review a complete application. Ottawa requires a distinctive tree permit to be posted on the property and on the tree for at least seven days before removal, and to stay posted for seven days after. Toronto notifies boundary and neighbour tree owners within 15 business days of an application and again at least 15 days before a permit issues, and requires a witnessed Undertaking and Release before the permit is issued at all.

Add those together and a shared tree in Toronto can take well over a month from application to legal removal. A crew offering to start next Tuesday is either working on a tree that needs no permit, or working on one that does not yet have it. The same logic that applies to renovation permits applies here: the paperwork is on the critical path, not beside it.

Several by-laws in this table make a certified arborist's report a documentary requirement rather than a suggestion, which raises an obvious question: certified by whom?

The credential most municipalities mean is the ISA Certified Arborist, which the International Society of Arboriculture describes as accredited by the ANSI National Accreditation Board for meeting or exceeding ISO 17024 standards for certification bodies, with holders bound to a published code of ethics. It is a voluntary international certification, not a Canadian licence, and ISA runs a public verification directory so a homeowner can check a claim independently of what the letterhead says.

The counterintuitive half is what provincial regulation does not do. In Ontario, the Arborist trade, code 444A, is classified by Skilled Trades Ontario as a non-compulsory trade — meaning no licence is required to cut down a tree — and because the trade is non-compulsory, the certificates of qualification it issues do not appear on the province's public register. The one provincial credential that exists cannot be looked up. That is precisely why the ISA verification route, and a current certificate of insurance, carry the whole weight of due diligence on a residential tree job.

A short check, in the order that costs the least to get wrong:

• Establish who owns the tree. Find the property line on a survey, not by the fence. If any part of the trunk crosses it, you need your neighbour's written consent before anything else matters.
• Measure the diameter at the height your by-law specifies — 1.4 metres in most municipalities, 1.37 metres in Brampton — and write the number down with the date.
• Check the municipality's own page, not a summary. Thresholds move; this table was accurate on September 15, 2026 and carries no guarantee past it.
• If the tree is dead or hazardous, photograph it before touching it, whether or not you think you are exempt.
• Ask whether the quoted price includes the permit fee, the arborist report and the replacement planting, or whether those arrive as separate invoices later.
• In a wildfire-exposed area, coordinate the removal with the rest of your defensible space work rather than treating it as a one-off — our wildfire season property checklist sets out the sequence.

National Tree Day falls on Wednesday, September 23 this year, the Wednesday of National Forest Week, with Tree Canada marking the fifteenth edition and events running across the country through September 27. There is a certain symmetry in it: the week the country celebrates planting is a reasonable week to find out what your city thinks about removing.