'Everybody loves the vacuum': Victoria fires up leaf-sucking trucks

In a time-honoured tradition, the City of Victoria is deploying teams to clean up the city's streets of leaves and prepare for the winter ahead.

It's a job that sucks, literally. The city's leaf collection program is in full swing, and residents may have noticed a municipal truck with an industrial vacuum in tow driving through the city's neighbourhoods.

"Everybody loves the vacuum," said Derrick Newman, Victoria's assistant director of parks and open spaces.

The city's leaf-collection truck is shown. (CTV News)

"You know, we get a lot of positive responses and thumbs up and honks," he said.

The city has a crew of about 15 workers who drive four trucks equipped with high-powered industrial vacuums.

The equipment can suck up 5.5 cubic metres of leaves at a time.

Each year, the city gathers about 7,000 tonnes of leaves from city streets.

"[It's] to make sure that the storm drains are cleared to prevent flooding," said Newman.

"Also for the roadways so cyclists and motorists have a clear spot to operate their vehicles," he said.

Once the leaves are collected, they're composted and turned into mulch that's repurposed for city parks, as well as neighbourhood organizations and residential gardens.

The city sends out leaflets to neighbourhoods to notify them of when the vacuum truck is supposed to arrive. The municipality asks that people rake leaves in piles for the trucks to collect.

"We ask [residents] that they leave the leaves neatly organized on their lawns or the boulevards for crews to come by and pick up," said Newman.

"The program is limited to leaves only, so we don't collect branches or other materials."

Residents can also check the city's website for specific routes and suction schedule dates.

If you need to arrange another time for your leaves to get picked up, you can call the city's parks office to see if any other time is available.

"These crews, they run five to six days a week through all weather conditions," said Newman.

"Their tireless efforts help to make the city clean and safe for everyone," he said.

The leaf-collection program runs until January. Residents can also collect leaves themselves and drop them off at Victoria's public works yard at 417 Garbally Rd. on Saturdays.