Cape Breton Regional Municipality goes $500K over snow removal budget

The Cape Breton Regional Municipality has gone over budget for snow removal this year.

The Cape Breton Regional Municipality (CBRM) has gone $500,000 over its approved snow removal budget this year as the region grappled with storm after storm.

Paul Dalesandro has been running his plow company in Whitney Pier, N.S., for more than 30 years and he said this year has been particularly busy.

“This has been probably one of the busiest winters in a while,” Dalesandro said. “To put it into perspective of hours, last year with (Cape Breton Regional Municipality) we plowed the streets here in Whitney Pier. We did 82, I think, hours and this year we’re up to 146.”

CBRM’s snow removal budget for this year was $5.3 million, but a spokesperson for the municipality confirmed that based on current estimates, spending is expected to come in at roughly $5.8 million.

Councillor Gordon MacDonald feels the department could have done worse than going $500,000 over budget.

“With these kinds of winters, I guess it’s to be expected,” MacDonald said. “There’s overtime that gets involved in that. It’s not just snowstorms that they deal with; (it’s) freezing rain, snow overnight, having the roads salted for mornings.”

In an email to CTV News Atlantic, a spokesperson for Halifax Regional Municipality said that as of the end of February, snow removal spending in the Nova Scotia capital had reached about 87 per cent of its roughly $40 million budget.

More snow is forecast for parts of Nova Scotia overnight Tuesday into Wednesday.

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