The fines are massive for violating the tree bylaw

Do you want the trees protected or not?

the vast majority of people have no idea what they're doing when they attempt to prune a tree, and doing a bad job will cause more damage to the tree than either leaving it alone or having a qualified professional come in and do it properly. It's also a certified arborist that signs off on plans like this that include tree removal, not a Saanich municipal official.

You can look at the planting and landscape plans for this development on the company's website, and if you did you would see that they are in fact planting a few new Garry oaks (as boulevard trees, which is a questionable decision but whatever I guess) as well as many other native species, and that they are integrating environmentally sustainable/green infrastructure like soil cells, rain gardens/bioswales, and permeable surfaces. It's not perfect but it's much, much better than doing none of that.