Vancouver city council has approved spending up to $4 million for the park board to hire eight private tree maintenance and consulting companies to tackle what staff say is a backlog of work that includes tree removal and stump grinding.
Council approved the budget Wednesday for the companies to complete the work over the next three years, despite concerns raised by Local 1004 of the Canadian Union of Public Employees, which represents outside workers.
“We are disappointed with the park board’s regular use of contract workers for jobs that city and parks workers could easily do, and we have articulated this to the city,” said Rob Limongelli, Local 1004’s administrator, in an email to BIV.
“CUPE 1004 and CUPE 15 continue to work through labour relations structures to advocate for more work to be undertaken in-house, by the qualified and dedicated city and park board workers who already serve their community with pride.”
A staff report detailing the rationale for hiring the companies went before council Wednesday. The report was presented after park commissioners supported the recommendations to hire the companies at a Monday night public meeting.
Commissioners heard from staff that there are approximately 75 employees in the park board’s urban forestry department. About 55 of those workers are dedicated to tree pruning, tree removal, stump grinding, tree planting and tree watering.
The park board’s urban forestry department is responsible for the care and maintenance of several million trees on public lands, including on medians, boulevards, in parks and on golf courses.
Amit Gandha, director of parks, told commissioners Monday that the park board currently does not have enough staff to handle the work, which includes more than 5,500 stumps that need to be removed or ground.
“But part of the challenge is we don't have the fleet that actually would support the staff,” said Gandha, referring to lift trucks and chippers.
“It takes time to bring on fleet and the equipment. So it's not simply just hiring staff, but we need to get the fleet first before we can add staff. And that's part of the plan moving forward is to actually look at that.”
Gandha said hiring the companies “is meant to support tree removal, tree pruning, stump grinding, emergency responses and also some consulting services required for development.”
Linden trees
Park commissioner Scott Jensen asked Gandha whether the work would include removing the notorious linden trees, which have been the subject of complaints for decades because of the sticky residue they leave on sidewalks, roads and vehicles.
“Right now, we do not have capacity to take on those types of projects because all we're dealing with right now is backlogs and high priority pruning and removals,” Gandha said.
“But [hiring the companies] will allow us to at least facilitate those conversations and come up with some long-term plans for those types of situations.”
Joe McLeod, the associate director of the park board’s urban forestry department, said Vancouver’s seasonal events such as storms also delay tree maintenance work.
On average, McLeod said, 20 per cent of the work throughout the year is related to storms.
“Every time there's a storm, we get pulled away from projects that we should be prioritizing,” he said.
“So with this extra support from the outside, it'll add operational nimbleness so that we can be more able to deliver the services we should be providing.”
'Not about taking work away from CUPE'
Gandha appeared before council Wednesday to answer questions from Coun. Pete Fry, which included: “Can you explain why we're not tasking or hiring city staff to do this work?”
Gandha: “I've had many conversations with CUPE 1004 with respect to that. And as a former CUPE member myself, I know the value of what CUPE delivers for the City of Vancouver and the park board. The intention of this work is not about taking work away from CUPE.”
Gandha reiterated concerns about a backlog of trees, stumps and other issues related to tree maintenance that need to be resolved. He again cited an inadequate fleet as another reason, along with recruitment.
“We've currently had postings out for almost two years to fill positions, and the intention of this blended service model is not a long-term plan to remove or eliminate CUPE 1004 positions,” he said.
“This is really to play catch-up in the next three to four years on getting the work completed with a long-term goal of increasing our fleet and staff capacity moving forward.”
Park board will be negotiating with the following companies to complete the backlog of work:
• Asplundh Canada ULC
• BC Plant Health Care Inc.
• Davey Tree Expert Co. of Canada, Ltd.
• NGS Contracting Ltd.
• Silverback Treeworks Ltd.
• TreeLine Management Inc.
• Chartwell Resource Group Ltd.
• Blackwell Consulting Ltd.
