Workers' compensation and ACC levy rates for tree work: Canada, Australia, New Zealand and the UK

Outside the United States, worker injury cover is mostly run by public boards. A board sorts each business into an industry class and publishes a rate for it. The rate is then applied to payroll or earnings, and each board describes that in its own words. This page lists what the boards publish for tree work or for the nearest class they name. It does not tell anyone which class their business belongs in or what they will pay: the board decides that. For the wider picture of cover, see the guide to what tree-work insurance covers.

Rates change every year, and the table gives the year of each rate. Individual employers can pay more or less than the class rate. The United States is left out because workers compensation there is set state by state, and the guide to insurance cover covers it.

Canada

Each province and territory has its own board. Boards in Canada price cover per CA$100 of payroll, which they call assessable payroll, insurable payroll or assessable earnings. Most boards also set a ceiling on how much of one worker's pay counts. Only British Columbia, Quebec and Prince Edward Island have a class named for tree work. In the other places tree work sits inside a landscaping, construction, forestry services or similar class, as the tables show.

British Columbia and Quebec

Place	Class or unit	Rate and year
British Columbia, WorkSafeBC	764062 Tree Services	CA$5.72, 2026 (CA$5.91 in 2025)
Quebec, CNESST	14030 Travaux d'arboriculture	CA$8.54 per CA$100, 2026
Quebec, CNESST	14010 forestry operations	CA$4.42 per CA$100, 2026
Quebec, CNESST	14020 forest management	CA$4.47 per CA$100, 2026

WorkSafeBC describes unit 764062 as firms that provide aerial and non-aerial tree services, including pruning, trimming, falling and chipping trees, not directly related to the forestry industry. Its sheet says the figure is a base premium rate, as of January 1, 2026. The CNESST rate table for 2026 prints two columns. The first is the general rate and the second is the particular rate. For arboriculture the particular rate is CA$8.19. The same table gives an average premium rate of CA$1.54 per CA$100 of payroll for 2026.

Ontario

The WSIB sets 2026 rates by class, not by tree work. Its 2026 premium rates page says the average premium rate for Ontario businesses is CA$1.23 per CA$100 of insurable payroll. It lists Class M, Administration, Services to Buildings, Dwellings and Open Spaces, with a 2026 class rate of CA$1.43. It says the maximum insurable earnings ceiling for 2026 is CA$121,700, compared with CA$117,000 in 2025.

The WSIB Employer Classification Manual lists landscaping services under NAICS 561730 in Class M. It marks some activities, including tree surgery and removal, with an asterisk. The manual says an asterisk means coverage is non-mandatory, and that pruning, surgery, trimming or removal of trees count as mandatorily covered when they are carried out together with other mandatorily covered landscaping services. Whether a particular business is covered, and in which class, is a question for the WSIB.

The other provinces and territories

Place	Nearest class	Rate and year
Alberta	02100 Landscaping	CA$1.91 per CA$100, 2026
Saskatchewan	R11-09 landscaping, tree trimming	CA$1.72 per CA$100, 2026
Manitoba	401-15 Landscaping, risk category 200%	200% of the CA$0.95 average
New Brunswick	561730 Landscaping Services	CA$1.37 per CA$100, 2026
Nova Scotia	Landscaping, SIC 4219	CA$2.82 per CA$100, 2027
Prince Edward Island	99491 Tree Trimming	CA$1.23, 2026 (CA$1.14 in 2025)
Newfoundland and Labrador	4219 Site Work, Other	CA$1.90 per CA$100, 2026
Yukon	107 Forestry or 209 Grounds	CA$6.73 or CA$1.50, 2026

Notes on the table, each as the board prints it:

Alberta. The 2026 rate table has no industry code with tree service in its name. Landscaping, 02100, sits in rate group 421501 Mobile Equipment Operations, which is CA$1.87. Logging and Woodland Operations, 03100, is CA$2.65 for contrast.
Saskatchewan. The rate classification lists tree trimming under R11 subcode 09 with landscaping, park development and tree thinning. The R11 rate is CA$1.72 per CA$100 for 2026.
Manitoba. The 401-15 Landscaping classification is in the Construction sector with a risk category of 200%, and its listed operations include arborist work related to landscaping, pruning, thinning and removing trees. The risk categories page works an example: with an average rate of CA$0.95 and a risk category of 200%, the base rate is 200% of CA$0.95, or CA$1.90. The page on determining premiums and your rate says a rate cannot move up or down more than 15 per cent from year to year.
New Brunswick. WorkSafeNB lists Support Activities for Forestry at CA$1.60 for 2026.
Nova Scotia. The 2027 rate book shows Landscaping at an industry rate of CA$2.63 plus a levy of CA$0.19.
Prince Edward Island. Rate group 401 is Class 4, Construction and Related Services. The board says the maximum assessable earnings for 2026 are CA$89,300.
Newfoundland and Labrador. There is no tree service code in the 2026 table. The board says the maximum earnings counted per person for 2026 are CA$80,935.
Yukon. The 2026 sheet names no tree class. Forestry is in the High rate group and Grounds Maintenance is in the Medium group.

United Kingdom

The rule is about insurance. GOV.UK says an employer must get Employers' Liability insurance as soon as it becomes an employer, to cover the employer for at least £5 million from an authorised insurer. It says an employer can be fined £2,500 every day it is not properly insured, and that not displaying the certificate can bring a fine of £1,000. It says you do not need the insurance if you only employ family members, or if your employees are based outside England, Scotland and Wales.

Australia

Each state and territory runs its own scheme, and each publishes a premium rate by industry class. The rate is applied to wages. The classes below are the ones each scheme uses for tree work. The table lists New South Wales, Victoria and South Australia.

Place	Class or code	Rate and year
New South Wales, icare	952520 Amenity Tree Services	9.690%, 2026 to 2027
Victoria, WorkSafe	N73130 Gardening Services	5.820%, 2026 to 2027
South Australia, ReturnToWorkSA	731302 Tree Lopping and Arborist	7.867%, 2026 to 2027

A rate of 9.690% means AU$9.69 per AU$100 of wages. For comparison, the icare sheet lists Gardening Services (952510) at 6.520% and Landscaping Services (425100) at 5.760%. See the icare 2026 to 2027 premium rates.

Victoria's Premiums Order lists a tree care service, with planting, pruning, removal and trimming as examples, under N73130 Gardening Services. The industry rates come from the Victorian Government Gazette of June 2, 2026, which also lists Landscape Construction Services at 3.883%. The WorkSafe Victoria industry rates page says the average premium rate for 2026 to 2027 is 1.8% of the state's rateable remuneration.

ReturnToWorkSA says the industry premium rate per AU$100 for each code is exclusive of GST. In the same table Gardening Services (731301) is 4.026%, and Landscape Construction Services (329101) is 4.180%.

New Zealand

ACC is a levy scheme, with rates published each April to March. The ACC Levy Guidebook for 2026 to 2027 lists the arboricultural service, or tree surgeon, under classification unit 95250, Gardening and turf management services. The table gives the rate below, per NZ$100 of liable earnings, excluding GST.

Place	Classification unit	Work levy, 2026 to 27
New Zealand, ACC	95250 Gardening and turf (arboricultural service)	NZ$1.76 per NZ$100

The guidebook says a self-employed person or a business with more than one classification unit uses the unit with the highest levy rate, unless it is eligible for several. Beyond the work levy, the guidebook says the Working Safer levy is a flat rate of NZ$0.08 per NZ$100 of liable earnings, collected for WorkSafe New Zealand. The ACC Levy Guidebook sets out the rest.

What the numbers show

The numbers show how each scheme ranks tree work against other trades. They are not quotes. A board can place a business in a different class from the one a reader expects, and individual rates move with claims history. The guide to cover questions for subcontractors covers working for another firm.