City council to further explore future increased road snow-clearing efforts

Edmonton city council will debate the snow and ice budget in the summer and one councillor wants to explore surge capacity to avoid what happened last month.

Edmonton’s city council is gearing up for a detailed debate about the snow and ice budget this summer.

One councillor wants to explore adding surge capacity to that budget so the city can respond faster to extreme snowfall.

“Sure, we can have that base budget, but in the event of unforeseen circumstances, do we have a solid and workable plan that will ensure that in the future we don’t find ourselves in the same situation that we just recently went through?” Aaron Paquette, the councillor for Ward Dene, told media on Tuesday.

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Last month, Edmonton saw three times the amount of snow it usually does. The repeated snowfalls blanketed the city, leaving most streets overrun, followed by warm temperatures this month that melted snow and turned it to ice, making roads difficult for drivers to navigate.

City crews are expected to finish clearing residential roads at the end of the week.

Paquette says people have told him they’re willing to pay a bit more in taxes for better snow clearing.

“We should have the capacity in place in order to be able to handle it a little bit more speedily and a little bit more broadly in the future,” Paquette said.

He’s asking city staff to look into on-call contracts for private plow operators, how to clear sidewalks for those with mobility issues and the frequency of extreme winter weather.

Michael Janz, the councillor for Ward papastew, said city council needs to talk about “having all options on the table” when it comes to the various issues that arise when snow and ice grip city streets, such as petitioning the province to make winter tires mandatory and permitting the use of calcium chloride road salt on streets.

“We all want to see solutions, and we all recognize that there’s a partnership here,” Janz said. “We’ve all got to work together.”