City hall is facing a tough choice as it tries to replace thousands of trees in London killed by the emerald ash borer.
The costly solutions to a budget shortfall to replace the ash trees are outlined in a report going to the planning committee next week.
Five years ago the province gave London $1 million to help replant trees, but that money has been spent and there are still about 11,000 trees to replace.
That means the cost could fall to taxpayers.
If city council doesn't increase the tree planting budget, it will take nine years to plant all the replacement trees.
Increasing the budget to $200,000 shortens the replacement time by six years and ingesting $500,000 into the project, shortens the wait to replace all trees to four years.
to $500,000 a year, shortens that replacement time, but that's a lot of money for the cash-strapped city hall to come up with.
In neighbouhoods hit hardest by the insect, waiting for trees to be replanted has become a source of frustration.
Planning committee chair Bud Polhill says the solution is for the province to consider tree planting as an infrastructure project, which would allow city hall to borrow the money.
