‘It’s heart-wrenching,’ Kelowna homeowners say of Fortis BC’s tree trimming practices

Elayne Rix still gets emotional talking about what used to be a 65-foot-high mature linden tree in her front yard.

“We watched it grow. We were here 38 years ago and it was 50 years old,” she told Global News.

The tree, in Kelowna’s Hall Road area, was significantly pared down on Aug. 28 by Fortis BC as it continued to grow dangerously close to powerlines.

While Rix and her husband Brad, a former lineman with Fortis, understand the dangers of that, they claim they came up with a solution to the ongoing problem in 2018.

“They agreed to put an alley arm in, which extends from the power line, extends it out. I don’t know how many feet and we got a quote from them signed by an engineer,” Rix said.

Installing an alley arm bolted to the power pole would allow the line to move toward the street and away from the tree.

Rix said the couple were even willing to foot the bill and provided documentation from Fortis showing the quote for the job, which was pegged at just over $3,500.

She also provided Global News with Fortis’s design of the project with an engineer’s stamp on it.

But the idea was put on hold as Fortis had just brushed the tree and the couple said they were told to wait to see how the tree would fare.

However, Rix said when Brad reached back out to Fortis in the fall of 2022, the price of the project had jumped to more than $11,000.

“When we refused to pay for the higher quote, we wanted them to go back to the other quote. They said no,” she said.

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Residents upset about Fortis BC cutting down trees

And then in June of this year, the couple were shocked by Fortis again. This time, they say they were told that the problem could only be solved by going underground at a cost of $42,000.

“We’d have to come up with $21,000 in five days and at the end of the month, we’d have to come up with another $21,000 in five days so at at that point, that was ridiculous,” Rix said.

On Aug. 28, Fortis crews took down large portions of the tree, severely pruning it.

“When they came, they showed absolutely no respect for that tree, they just hacked, hacked, hacked,” Rix said.

In an email to Global News, Fortis stated it recognizes the importance of these trees to the property owners and this underscores the importance of considering the size of trees at full maturity before planting.

It added that the tree had become a potentially dangerous situation for the community by actively growing into the power lines.

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The utility company provided Global with a photo showing what it said was a section of burnt leaves from the line.

The company’s email went on to say the original design of the alley arm proves the company went to “great lengths to try to understand what could work and accommodate the property owners, even going through the time and expense of putting a design together for consideration. But it was determined to not be viable at a later stage of the process.”

Fortis cited a number of reasons for deciding the option was not viable, including that the existing power pole was not able to handle the extra weight, it was an ineffective way to keep the line clear over the long term and the overall design would not be in keeping with its utility standards.

Concerned residents like Bev Kalmakoff, who manages a Facebook page called Kelowna Tree Protectors, said she believes trees are being “butchered” because it’s cheaper than constantly pruning them.

She added that a compromise is badly needed.

“We need to feel less like David and Goliath,” Kalmakoff said. “We need to feel more like, ‘OK, let’s talk.  Let me understand why this tree needs to be cut. And what’s the best way to do it and know that the people that are going to be doing that are qualified and sensitive to the fact that that the tree is important to me.’”

And while it’s too late for Rix, she echoed the sentiment.

“I just think it’s awful, just disgusting, what they’re doing to us, to other people in Kelowna,” Rix said. “We used to listen to the customer used to come up with something, you know, like a resolution. It’s heart-wrenching.”

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