By Dominic Abassi

City bringing back wildly successful cheap tree offer

Jan 8, 2018 | 2:45 PM

NANAIMO — A hugely popular program designed to increase the number of trees in Nanaimo has sprouted once again.

The City of Nanaimo’s tree voucher offer will return starting Jan. 15. For $20, residents can get a $75 voucher to be redeemed for a tree at Green Thumb Garden Centre.

Dean Mousseau, the City’s manager of engineering and environment, said they were blown away by the response to the program last spring. In April, the City sold out 200 vouchers in barely 30 minutes.

“It was wildly successful. To sell out 200 trees in half-an-hour, it exceeded our wildest expectations. From there, we decided we need to revisit this and do it again.”

He said they had no idea what to expect and learned quickly the program needed some tweaking.

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Previously the City didn’t confirm those getting vouchers were actually residents of Nanaimo, something that needed to be fixed Mousseau said. He said they also discovered the limit on trees-per-person was too high and they didn’t have enough vouchers.

Mousseau said the plan is to make the tree voucher program a permanent fixture, offering the deal at Earth Day and Rivers Day events each year.

The program is funded by developers, who are required to pay $300 per tree removed and not replaced during development of land. Mousseau said adding trees to the community in this way makes those dollars stretch further.

“If we were to get dollars and plant a tree…the City would be responsible for planting and maintaining it. Here, we’re able to purchase more trees and the homeowner can decide what type of tree they want and where to plant it.”

The vouchers are available on a first come, first serve basis at the Service and Resource Centre on Dunsmuir St. beginning Jan. 15. Proof of residency must be shown and there’s a limit of two vouchers per property. The vouchers expire on Mar. 25, 2018.

Mousseau said there’s no restriction on the type of tree people can get and if they want one more expensive than $75, the voucher can be applied to a more expensive tree.

dom@nanaimonewsnow.com

On Twitter: @domabassi