Snow Removal & Service Reviews

On Monday, Council directed Administration to start another round of residential snow (and ice) removal. It begins today.

Some streets are melting up fine, but many are experiencing daytime flooding that creates severe freeze issues—problems that could worsen with another cold snap. I was very pleased to see my colleagues support this round of removal. 

Now, the interesting question is: where does Council go next with residential snow and ice control? Snow removal is a topic that is always of high interest to residents. But it is also a great example of how we manage budgets at Council.

Cost control has been a huge priority throughout my time at the Council table. Many residents are struggling with affordability, and businesses are facing rising costs too. We want to keep municipal property taxes as low as possible while still delivering the infrastructure, safety, and quality of life our residents expect.

Ultimately, the City has two levers to lower costs: increasing efficiencies and adjusting service levels.

Our first priority is always to be more efficient. And we’ve made significant progress here. Over the past two Council terms, the average residential tax bill has risen by only about half the rate of inflation. That is despite inflation increasing City costs, funding cuts from higher levels of government, and the addition of new services like driveway windrow removal, the outdoor pool, and mobile outreach. Over the past few years, the City has become much more efficient.

But efficiency alone isn’t enough. We must also ensure we’re delivering the right level of service. If we can save money by reducing a service without significantly impacting residents, we should.

That’s where service level reviews come in. We conduct these regularly across the entire City organization. Since snow removal is one of the most visible and easily understood services, is a perfect case study of how service reviews happen.

In our last budget deliberations, Council spent a lot of time on residential snow and ice control. In previous years, private contractors were used to remove snow from residential roads once we had 10 cm of accumulation. We budgeted to do 5 rouns of removal per year at a cost of roughly $250,000 per round. At budget deliberations, it was proposed to raise the trigger to 13 cm. In typical years, this would mean one less round of removal, saving about $250,000 per year.

This proposal sparked considerable debate. There were a lot of good questions to Administration about what a change would look like. Then some great debate, with some Councillors in favour and some opposed. The majority ultimately voted to increase it. The majority of Council didn’t think this would have too big an impact, so was worth trying.  However, they agreed to monitor things closely and revisit this approach if the impact proved too significant.

Throughout most of the winter, I was surprised to not hear about this too much from residents. However, as the melt began last week, many streets saw ruts get more problematic and very challenging flooding. I’ve heard from numerous residents that “this isn’t working for my street.” I believe many of my colleagues received similar feedback.

So on Monday, this topic was brought up. Council unanimously agreed to address the current buildup immediately by directing a round of residential snow removal. This will be good to see over the next two weeks.

Now for the interesting part: talking about future years. In spring, we’ll have debate about next stps. Some may find that this was an unusual snowfall year and support saving costs by keeping the 13 cm trigger, perhaps with an occasional extra round on years like this one where we get an unusual snow pattern. Others might argue that 13 cm is fine most of the time, except during melt periods, and therefore favor an annual “breakup” round of removal. Some (this is me) believe that 13cm is not an acceptable amount of accumulation so are likely to support reverting back to the 10cm trigger. And others might have different ideas altogether. 

Over the next couple of months, we will be hearing more from residents. Asking Administration to study and explain alternatives. Hearing more from residents. Then we will be able to make some decisions about appropriate service levels.

This is a regular conversation for us across all of the City’s ~350 programs. We’re always talking to residents to learn about their experiences, reviewing our services to determine if we’re doing too much or too little, and working with Administration to test alternatives. Then listening to residents about how they are experiencing changes and adjusting as necessary.

This process of continuous improvement is very important for our community. I’m very thankful to be a part of it in my role as Councillor.

But we need residents to be involved too! As Council continues to debate snow removal—and all other services—I’m always eager to hear from you. Feel free to reach out on social media, email me at dbressey@cityofgp.com, or (even better) meet me for coffee to chat.

Additionally, if you haven’t done so already, please head over to access.cityofgp.com. There, you can sign up for text or email notifications about services or neighbourhoods that are interesting to you. That is the best way to stay informed about City operations. And where you can get notified about formal engagement opportunities the City is hosting.

Thanks for reading!

— Dylan