Tree touching power lines in Saskatchewan, Canada: who is responsible
SaskPower, the province's electricity utility, publishes pages on who trims a tree near its lines, how an owner asks for an assessment, and how far from a line trees are planted. This page reports what those pages say.
This page is for tree owners. It reports what the named sources say and is not advice about your tree: for that, ask a qualified arborist or one of the offices under Who to call.
Checked against the sources at the bottom of this page on October 9, 2026. Rules, fees and pay change: the source has the last word.
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 SaskPower page Request Tree Trimming Assessment splits the job in two. Under the heading Our Responsibility it says that if a tree presents a threat to public safety or to the utility's equipment, SaskPower trims the branches or removes the tree if required. Under Your Responsibility it says that if the tree does not pose that threat, the property owner is responsible for trimming or removing it, and that branches should be kept between 3 and 22.5 metres (10 and 75 feet) from the power line, depending on the type of line. It says disposal of trimmed branches is the property owner's responsibility.
What the utility says about its own work
The same page says the utility hires certified utility arborists, describes them as trained in plant ecology and in working around power lines, and says that depending on where a tree stands and how fast its branches regrow, a large section of the tree may need to be removed. It says a tree may be removed entirely if it is in the right-of-way, in danger of falling onto a line, or cannot be trimmed to a safe distance. It says that unless it is an emergency, the utility tries to contact the owner before work begins, and that a request may take time to follow up depending on urgency. It says the utility has 110,000 kilometres of power lines that trees could potentially touch.
The page Integrated Vegetation Management says SaskPower inspects selected sections of its lines each year, sets priorities by line voltage, location, regulatory requirements, customer impact and patrol findings, and clears lines by cutting, mulching, mowing or herbicide. It says its goal is stable, low-growing plant communities, and that it does its best to notify an owner in advance when it clears vegetation on their property.
Distances and the easement
The page Trees and Power Line Safety says about 1,700 outages a year are caused by trees contacting power lines. For planting, it says no planting is permitted within the right-of-way for transmission lines and that 15 to 22.5 metres from either side of the outermost line are clear. For distribution lines it lists four zones, measured from either side of the outermost line:
| Zone | Distance from the outermost line |
|---|---|
| Clear Zone | 3 metres |
| Low Zone | 3 to 6 metres |
| Medium Zone | 6 to 15 metres |
| Tall Zone | 15 metres and further |
The utility's page Working Safely in Your Yard says that where power service is underground, the back three metres of a yard is an easement for power and natural gas lines, and that large trees are not to be planted in the easement because the utility may have to remove them if it needs access. It also says transformers need three metres of clearance around the door and 24-hour access.
Danger and elm pruning
The assessment page says to call 310-2220 for all emergencies, and that if a line is sparking or a tree is burning, people stay back at least 10 metres and contact the utility. It says it is illegal to prune elm trees from April 1 to August 31 each year, to curb the spread of Dutch elm disease. It advises hiring a certified arborist and asks owners not to trim or remove a tree near or touching a line themselves, and to submit a request instead. It says a tree near a telecommunications line is a different case, because those lines are usually lower on the pole than power lines.
Who to call
- SaskPower emergency line, 310-2220: a tree touching a line, a sparking line or a burning tree, per the utility page
- SaskPower, tree trimming assessment request: the online request for a tree near or touching a power line
- SaskPower, trees and power line safety: planting distances and the vegetation programme
- Sask1stCall: line locates before digging, per the utility page