Saskatoon one step closer to expanding elm wood disposal program

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The City of Saskatoon is one step closer to an enhanced elm wood disposal program after the environment, utilities and corporate services committee passed city administration’s recommendations on Tuesday.

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The city waived landfill disposal fees for elm wood in 2024 to reduce barriers for residents, and to try to prevent Dutch elm disease outbreaks.

Katie Burns, education and environmental performance manager with the city, showed a map depicting the cases of Dutch elm disease seen in the city between 2015 and 2024, with locations varying across Saskatoon.

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Burns said they wanted to expand last year’s project, allowing commercial arborists to have their fees waived for elm tree disposal at the landfill as well.

She said the money spent on this project would be far less than if a Dutch elm disease outbreak landed in the city.

“According to the City of Winnipeg, since 2016, they have lost more than 33,000 elm trees to the disease,” Burns said.

City administration also suggested using $100,000 from the urban forestry and pest management capital reserve for enhanced Dutch elm disease monitoring and sweeps in 2025.

Dutch elm disease poses a serious risk to Saskatoon’s urban forest, which is roughly one-quarter elm trees, city administration said.

Provincial regulation prohibits the storage or use of elm wood. According to the city, despite those rules 12,724 kilograms of elm wood were retrieved by Parks Department staff in 2024.

The fees waived in 2024 were for loads of elm wood under 1,000 kilograms. According to the report, that brought in almost 2,500 residents compared to 700 visits the previous year.

The reduction in revenue from the waived fees is listed in the report as being somewhere between $130,000 and $200,000.

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If approved by council, the cost of the uncollected fees will be added to the upcoming 2026-27 budget deliberations.

Robin Adair with Arbour Crest Tree Services said he was thankful that commercial arborists are to be included in the free disposal of elm trees.

“Dutch elm disease is at our doorstep,” Adair said, adding that it was nice to see Saskatoon being proactive.

He said the cost for elm wood disposal has always been passed back to the homeowner, and Saskatoon was an outlier compared to other cities like Calgary or Winnipeg.

“This is a long time coming.”

That being said, Adair had another suggestion, noting that they can’t access the landfill when it’s wet or raining, and that the city should invest in a grinder for elm wood. He added that it was being done in Winnipeg, and it was highly unlikely for Dutch elm disease to transport from mulch wood chips.

Mayor Cynthia Block asked about Adair’s thoughts on fines to try and incentivize people to dispose of their elm wood, but Adair said elm wood is often found in neighbourhoods because people don’t want to pay to dispose of it.

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“What I’m hearing you say is we don’t really need to worry about a stick if you do the carrot part, so people are incentivized to not use elm wood,” Block said. “It’s not always the case that people don’t realize they’re not using elm wood, they simply don’t want to pay the fees.”

Coun. Holly Kelleher asked about what the cost of an outbreak would look like on a city block.

Adair pointed to Spadina Crescent, saying there were somewhere in the range of 100 elm trees along that road. He said it was about $800 to $1,000 per tree just for disposal.

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