Free Trees in Toronto and the 905, Plus What Subsidised Ones Cost

Two kinds of tree are on offer here, and they are not the same product. A city tree goes on the road allowance, the strip of city-owned land between the roadway and your property line. The city picks the species and the spot, the city owns the tree, and Mississauga and Vaughan both say the homeowner pays nothing. A yard tree goes on land you own. There the price starts at nothing, and a town sale can sell you a potted one for $10 plus HST. A subsidised planting service is the expensive end: $110 to $180 a tree before tax if you dig the hole, or $160 to $230 if LEAF digs it. That split, city land or your land, decides which programme you can even apply to. We checked 21 GTA programmes, 20 of them on August 26 and 27, 2026, and one on September 29. Ten come with no price attached. Seven charge a set price or a set discount off one. Four pay part of the bill and leave the rest to you.

The split that decides everything

Every programme starts with one question. Where does the tree go?

Four of the 21 put it on the road allowance. Burlington calls that strip the right of way, which means the same thing: land the city owns and keeps clear for the road.

The other 17 put a tree on private land, 16 of them on land you own. The 17th, TRCA's Climate Ready Homes, names no planting rule and is open to residents, not only owners. That is where the giveaways and the subsidised planting services sit. A plant from Toronto's Free Tree Program has to go on privately owned land. The City warns that part of your front or side lawn may be road allowance, and that strip is not eligible.

The ten with no price attached

Eight say free in plain words on their own page. Two only name no fee, which is a weaker claim.

Free, and the page says so

Toronto's Free Tree Program hands over two trees or shrubs per household a season. Mississauga runs giveaways on the same idea: one free native tree per resident, advance registration only, and duplicate registrations are cancelled. Brampton does the same during its September Tree Month. The 2026 page names no per-household limit, only that quantities are limited. Its news release of August 26, 2025 capped that year at one tree per household, so register early rather than counting on a second.

Vaughan is the plainest of the street tree programmes. Its page says there will be no charge to the homeowner, and that the City provides both the tree and the planting. Mississauga's news page of June 30, 2026 calls its public tree planting programme free in as many words.

Three more are free, but only at some addresses. LEAF's Toronto Low-Canopy Neighbourhood Greening Initiative gives an eligible property one free tree a year, or two free cedars, or one free pair of pawpaw trees. Up to three free shrubs come on top. Eligible means a neighbourhood with less than 28.4 per cent tree cover, which is the city-wide average, inside an area the City's equity data flags. You check your address on LEAF's map. Credit Valley Conservation runs a similar giveaway for named parts of Mississauga, Brampton and Acton, and its own team delivers and plants the tree. TRCA's Climate Ready Homes programme is the third. Book its free home consultation, about 60 minutes long, and you choose one free incentive, with a tree or shrub on the list. It is open to any resident of a detached or semi-detached house or a townhome in TRCA's area, and to every Peel Region resident. Incentives go first come, first served while supplies last.

Two more where no fee is published

Toronto's street tree request and Burlington's Street-Side Tree Planting programme both put a city tree in front of your house. Neither page names a fee, a charge or any dollar figure anywhere, so nothing promises the tree is free. Burlington's programme rests on a January 2024 release, and the City's current tree planting page does not mention it. Ask 311 in Toronto, or 905-335-7777 in Burlington, before you count on it.

What a subsidised tree costs

Below cost does not mean cheap, and the price buys different things in different programmes.

LEAF is the not-for-profit behind most of the subsidised planting here. Full Service is $160 to $230 per tree with taxes extra. That buys a 30-minute site visit from a LEAF arborist, the tree, delivery, planting, mulch, a care guide and follow-up advice. The tree is a 5 to 8 foot native deciduous tree, or a 2 to 4 foot native evergreen. Full Service only covers backyards and fenced side yards.

Do-It-Yourself is $110 to $180 per tree with taxes extra, and it covers front, side or back yards. You get a 30-minute video call with the arborist instead of a site visit, the same size of tree, delivery, mulch and the care guide. You dig the hole.

Neither page says which species sits at which end of its range, so treat $160 and $110 as the floor for their own programmes and nothing more. Add-ons are priced separately: native shrubs are $30 each, eastern white cedars are $50 each, and it is $25 per item if you want LEAF to plant one for you under Full Service.

One charge is easy to miss. Book a consultation, then buy no tree, and LEAF keeps $100 plus HST for a Full Service site visit, or $50 plus HST for a Do-It-Yourself video call. The consultation is good for a year, so if you do buy a tree in that time, the amount comes off your order instead.

Halton Hills runs its own sale with LEAF, and at $10 it is the cheapest potted tree in the table above. TRCA's seedlings cost less each, but they are nursery stock sold 100 at a time. The Town and LEAF sell up to 10 native trees or shrubs at $10 each plus HST, in 2 to 3-gallon pots. Trees are about 2 to 5 feet tall and shrubs about 1 to 2 feet, and you collect them at a single pickup event.

Where a municipality pays part of the bill

Three municipalities pay part of the LEAF price, and the discounts are not the same shape.

Markham replaces the price rather than discounting it. A Markham property owner pays $100 for a deciduous tree and $50 for an evergreen, from a shorter species list, up to five trees per property per year. Newmarket pays a $100 rebate on one tree per property per year, and business properties do not qualify. Ajax pays $150 on a Full Service planting and $100 on a Do-It-Yourself one, again one per property per year.

If your municipality is not here, you pay the LEAF price above.

Oakville does something different. The Town contributes $300 towards a larger tree that you buy and plant yourself, in a spot the Town approves. It is for a front yard with no Town tree in front of it.

If a tree removal permit obliges you to replant, check with your permit officer first. LEAF measures its trees in height, not caliper, which is the trunk diameter that permits usually specify. Markham does not accept a LEAF tree for a permit replanting condition at all, and the Toronto low-canopy incentive cannot satisfy a Toronto permit either.

If your property is measured in acres

A conservation authority is a public agency that manages a watershed, the land that drains into one river system. Three programmes here are built for bigger properties.

TRCA covers Toronto and the rivers around it. Its Private Land Planting Program needs a minimum of 2 acres (0.8 ha). It funds up to 90 per cent of an eligible project, depending on your municipality and the scope. That includes a free site visit, a planting plan, the stock and the planting itself, usually finished in a day. Spring orders must reach TRCA by December 1 of the year before.

Durham TREES is run by Durham Region with its five conservation authorities. It funds up to 85 per cent of an eligible project, and you qualify with room for a minimum of 100 trees. Conservation Halton asks for a minimum of 500 trees on a minimum of 0.5 acres. It also wants a 15 year promise not to cut them, and your share of the cost after the subsidies. Its staff handle the site visit, the plan, the planting and the tending at one, two and five years.

TRCA will also just sell you stock to plant yourself. Deciduous seedlings start at $1.75 each and coniferous at $1.27. The catch is the minimum order: 30 bare root trees, meaning trees lifted and sold with no soil on the roots, or 75 shrubs, or a combination of the two, or 100 seedlings, plus $15.00 shipping and taxes.

Who waters it, and what happens if it dies

Almost every programme hands the watering to you, free city trees included.

Toronto says the City will water, mulch, prune, fertilize or stake a new street tree when needed. It then asks you to water it for the first two to three years anyway. Mississauga is the outlier: its contractors water street trees through the growing season for two years after planting. Vaughan puts the whole job on the homeowner for three years. Oakville splits it, asking residents to water street trees on the house side of the sidewalk while Town staff water the rest.

LEAF asks for water twice a week, about six gallons a plant each time, for two years. It gives the equivalent itself: "three full watering cans twice per week or using a hose with no nozzle on a very slow trickle for approximately 15 minutes twice per week". Halton Hills makes you sign an agreement to water twice a week from April through November for two years.

Only LEAF publishes a guarantee. A tree or shrub must produce leaves by the first July 15 after planting, so a spring planting is judged that July and a fall planting the following one. Miss the deadline, or skip the care, and no replacement is considered. Animal, weather and other damage after planting is not covered. Halton Hills is the opposite: all sales are final and there is no warranty at all.

Check the window before you plan around it

These windows open and close. Every figure here is what the page said on August 26 or 27, 2026, or on September 29 for Climate Ready Homes.

The rest run on the calendar. LEAF plants and delivers in two seasons: April to the end of June, and September to the end of November. It is first come, first served. A city street tree request has no window at all: you ask, and it lands in a planting season once staff have inspected the site.