The permit to take down a healthy tree in Mississauga carries a fee for the first tree. That is the number people budget for, and it is the cheap part. The expensive number arrives later, when the city works out how many replacement trees you owe, because that count comes off the diameter of the tree you just cut down.
Mississauga Protects Trees From 15 cm
A tree on your property is protected once it measures 15 cm or more across the trunk, measured from outside the bark at 1.4 metres above the ground. That size triggers Private Tree Protection By-law 0021-2022. On a multi-stem tree the city adds up the diameters of all the stems at that same 1.4 metre height, so a clump can clear the threshold when no single stem would. A tree only counts at all if it’s a woody perennial that has reached, or could reach, 4.5 metres tall at maturity, so a shrub that will never get that tall is not caught by the bylaw, no matter how thick its stem gets.
All of this covers private property only. Trees on city-owned streets and in parks fall under a separate instrument, the Public Tree Protection By-law 0020-2022, administered on its own track.
Dead Trees Still Need a Permit, Just Not a Fee
A dead or dying tree is not exempt from the permit requirement. You still have to apply. What changes is the paperwork and the price: no arborist report is needed to support the application, and the city charges nothing for the permit. The 2026 fee schedule widened the fee side of that to hazardous trees as well, so a tree that is structurally shot but still alive now gets the same free permit.
Ash gets an even shorter path. The current application form states outright that all ash trees are considered dead or dying, a standing citywide policy that reflects how badly Emerald Ash Borer has hit the local canopy. That single line waives both the fee and the arborist report for any ash removal, with no case-by-case argument required. Our guide to submitting a GTA tree permit application covers the documentation the city asks for.
The Fee Is Two Tiers, and You Only Pay One Up Front
For a healthy tree, the base permit fee covers one tree (Confirm with Mississauga for the amount). Every tree after the first adds $123.65 before HST. You don’t pay those at submission, though. The city bills them after an inspection, so the amount due when you file is the base fee no matter how many trees are on the application.
That base fee is non-refundable once paid, with one exception. If the city deems your application withdrawn, which happens when it sits incomplete past a deadline an officer sets or simply reaches two years old, the bylaw allows a partial refund of the application fee.
Processing takes up to 30 business days from the point your application is complete. A fall removal needs a summer application if you want the tree down before the ground freezes.
The Replanting Count Is Arithmetic
The city’s own communications state the ratio plainly: one replacement tree for every 15 cm of diameter removed. A 45 cm tree comes out to three replacement trees. A 90 cm trunk comes out to six, which is more planting stock than a lot of front yards can physically hold.
The bylaw text itself does not hard-code that ratio. Section 24(2) says more than one replacement tree may be required “based on the Diameter of the Tree that was removed in accordance with the applicable City policy,” which leaves the actual multiplier to internal policy rather than the by-law. Plan around one per 15 cm regardless. That is the number the city puts in public writing.
A replanting condition also brings a security deposit, in a form the city finds acceptable, sized to cover the replacement tree’s cost plus up to two years of maintenance. You get it back after a final inspection confirms the tree is still healthy at least a year after planting. Skip the planting or the required work, and the city can take that deposit, in whole or in part, and drop it into the Replacement Tree Planting Fund.
When the Lot Cannot Hold the Trees You Owe
Not every property has room for three or six new trees. Where a removed tree cannot be replaced on the same lot, an officer can order the replacement planted on city property instead, or require a cash-in-lieu payment into that same Replacement Tree Planting Fund. That power sits in the bylaw’s enforcement-order provisions rather than on the permit application itself, but it is the general cash-in-lieu route in practice.
The 2026 fee schedule puts a per-tree charge on it: $901.67 (tree removed from private property, diameter 15 cm or greater). Run the same 45 cm maple through that formula and cash-in-lieu is charged for all three replacements, on top of whatever the removal itself cost. Our replanting and cash-in-lieu comparison across the GTA breaks down how that compares to what neighbouring cities charge for the same trade-off.
Heritage Trees Run on a Separate Track
Where a tree carries that designation under Part IV of the Ontario Heritage Act, section 6 of the bylaw prohibits injuring or destroying it without approval under that Act first. Get that approval, and section 17(12) exempts the work from the tree permit requirement altogether. The Heritage Act approval displaces the permit. You do not stack one on the other.
Section 18(5) covers a tree on a lot designated under the Ontario Heritage Act, where the City’s Heritage Coordinator gives a written opinion on the tree’s relevance to the designation. If it’s relevant, the Heritage Advisory Committee approves (or refuses) the injury or destruction. That route is a ground for issuing a permit rather than a substitute for one.
By-law 0144-2025, passed September 24, 2025, added a definition of “hazard,” cut the window to request a review of a refused or revoked permit to 10 days (with a non-refundable administrative fee) and made stalled applications deemed withdrawn after two years.
Mailed and drop-off applications go to the Forestry Section at 3240 Mavis Road. The Parks and Forestry customer service counter there is closed. Applications go three ways: online through the City’s permit application (linked from the Tree permits page), by mail to Parks and Forestry Division, PO Box 1850, Station B, Mississauga ON L4Y 3W6, or to the dropbox in front of 3240 Mavis Road near the delivery area.
Work Out the Replanting Count Before You Apply
We prepare the arborist reports the city’s application requires, and we’ll run the one-per-15-cm math against your actual tree so you know whether you’re looking at a small planting job or a cash-in-lieu payment in the thousands. See our tree removal report service. Contact us with the tree’s diameter and address and we’ll tell you what the permit and the replanting requirement will cost before you submit anything.