Snow budget to be reviewed

In 2024, 34 per cent of the budget of that $10.3 million was attributed to labour, eight per cent to materials like salt and gravel, two per cent to equipment retainers, nine per cent to winter sand pick up and 51 per cent to snow events like major snowfalls.

And for staff, this latest inquiry means it’s back to the drawing board.

“Well, the next step for us would be myself and staff to review what those impacts would be for not working on stat holidays,” explains Blake McIntosh, Director of Civic Operations.”If there’s snow and we’re not ploughing on a stat holiday. Is that money saved? Or if we’re just doing our normal maintenance and there is no snow on a standard holiday, is that money not spent?”

But there are challenges that McIntosh noted during the meeting of not plowing on stat holidays.

“Say we were a couple of days into a snow event and we stopped plowing and then we got another huge dump within one or two days after that. It kind of accumulates and could make the job a little bit more difficult and take a little bit longer.”

On top of that, the City has very specific obligations to accessibility.

“Extra attention on the sidewalks this year. And then obviously the motor vehicle situations, if we allow snow to get too compacted and for instance, we get rain immediately following like we’ve had recently, that causes slippery conditions.”

The City’s two unions – the inside and outside workers – ratified a new contract in November and it includes pay raises, which had budget implications. It was noted during the most recent discussion that, this too, could have contractual implications.

“The biggest one is, is this going to cause a safety concern? Extending the time if a major snowfall occurs on a stack? You know what is I think Mr. McIntosh said it really well. The compacted snow element. You know what happens if we’re compacting too much snow before we get to plough?”

Currently, there is $2.2 million remaining the snow reserve budget.

by Cheryl Jahn

Snow budget to be reviewed

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