Tree touching power lines in Nova Scotia, Canada: who is responsible

This page reports what the official source says. It is not legal advice: ask the office named here. It describes the utility's own pages. Other Canadian provinces have their own utilities and rules, and none is covered here.

Who is responsible

The Nova Scotia Power page Tree Trimming sorts responsibility by wire. For the high voltage wires it says the utility maintains safe clearance. For the homeowner it lists three kinds of wire:

the lower-voltage service wire from the street pole to the mast on the house, where the page says the mast belongs to the owner and trimming is the owner's responsibility and qualified contractors able to work around it;
communication wires, which the page says are not electrical wires and that trees around them do not threaten the electrical system;
support cables that hold poles up, which the page also says are not electrical wires.

The page says that for customer requests the utility focuses on individual trees that pose an immediate risk to power lines, and gives 1-800-428-6230 for a tree trimming request and the 24-hour outage line 1-877-428-6004 for a tree laying on a line.

Within the Halifax Regional Municipality

The utility's Vegetation Management page says that within the Halifax Regional Municipality both the utility and the municipality are responsible for tree trimming. It says the municipality manages municipality-owned trees, typically those between sidewalk and roadway, and the utility manages privately owned trees that may pose a risk to its system, such as trees close to high voltage wires, but needs the customer's permission before trimming on private property. It says customers are responsible for the low voltage wire along the street to the house, for communication wires and for support cables.

What the utility says about its program

The Vegetation Management page says tree contacts are the single largest cause of power outages in the province, that the system has over 32,000 kilometres of power lines, and that it trims along approximately 1,000 km of powerlines a year. It says it prioritizes by how close trees are to lines, outage data, line condition assessed by its forestry teams, and customer requests. It says it typically can only cut 10 feet on the forest side of the lines unless it gets permission for more, and that a tree it deems not a threat may be the responsibility of the owner or a third party.

The page describes four methods: aerial trimming from bucket trucks by qualified utility workers, mechanical clearing with mowers, manual clearing with chainsaws and brush saws, and herbicides. It says herbicide use is regulated through an approval from the provincial government, that approvals require a buffer from watercourses and private water supplies, that the utility advertises publicly at least 20 days before work begins and posts street-level notice at least seven days before an application.

Planting and downed wires

The Tree Trimming page says the utility and Landscape Nova Scotia created a program called Plant the Right Tree in the Right Place, and lists trees it describes as safe to plant near power lines, among them Japanese maples, serviceberry, Kwanzan cherry and several dwarf spruces and junipers. The utility's safety page says to treat downed wires as live and dangerous and to call 9-1-1.

Who to call

9-1-1: downed wires, per the utility safety page
Nova Scotia Power outage line, 1-877-428-6004: a tree laying on a power line, open 24 hours per the utility page
Nova Scotia Power tree trimming requests, 1-800-428-6230: customer requests for tree trimming
Your municipality: municipality-owned trees, for example between sidewalk and roadway in Halifax Regional Municipality