'Unprecedented snow' has mayor musing about rethinking winter plowing

Mayor Andrew Knack wants to have a conversation about the city’s snow-clearing policies going into the next four-year budget cycle.

Before he headed off to Harbin, China, to promote Edmonton business and tourism in its sister city, Knack published a lengthy post on his Substack discussing the city’s snow removal last Friday.

Pointing out that Edmonton, and much of the province, is seeing a dramatically snowier winter than its 30-year average, Knack thanked crews for working to keep up with the higher-than-average snowfall, adding that winter’s not even half over.

“I know people are frustrated, I’ve heard it in the phone calls, emails, social media and conversations while I’ve been out in the community,” he stated. “At the same time, I’ve also heard the appreciation for the City of Edmonton crews who have been out 24-7 to keep Edmonton moving.

“The sheer volume of snow we have received has been significant and has made local roads especially challenging. I drive a smaller vehicle and have had a couple of close calls getting stuck. I’ve heard from many residents who have been stuck themselves — or who’ve helped to push someone else free.”

According to Environment Canada, this is Edmonton’s fifth wettest December on record, beating the next worst December by 0.2 millimetres of precipitation.

Meteorologist Danielle Desjardins listed off the sixth-largest volumes of precipitation, which includes both rain and snow, the city has seen since recording began.

Emphasizing the city needs to focus on windrows on its main roads ahead of clearing residential streets for safety reasons, Knack summarized the city’s snow removal policies and procedures before suggesting Edmonton has and could consider alternative snow removal methods.

Knack noted that some other cities forgo blading and just remove snow entirely, adding that the city has looked into the logistics of a similar service here but found it would be substantially higher in cost than the current procedures, which in themselves have increased every year and are currently budgeted at $67 million.

Knack said the city looked into alternative snow removal systems in 2022, including Stockholm, Sweden, to determine if there were better solutions than blading and what the costs of removing snow faster would be. The report council received gave back two options — the first involved doubling the rate of snow removal, which would have added $20 million to the overall budget. The second would have cut the time taken to remove snow by an estimated one-quarter but would have increased the city’s annual snow removal budget by $71 million.

“Since this report’s publication, council approved a 20 per cent budget increase for the snow removal program, which brings the annual budget to approximately $67 million,” said senior communications adviser Mike Steger. “It’s important to note that the estimates included in this report represent the most recent cost analysis. For example, Page 2 of the attachment outlines the 2022 estimated costs for service enhancements.

“While up-to-date figures aren’t available, costs have increased substantially since this time due to various factors, largely driven by inflation.”

Acknowledging the city’s snow removal budget has not kept pace with the city’s sprawling road network, Knack reiterated his desire for a city-wide conversation on what budget priorities should take precedence in the next four-year budget cycle.

“It’s important to have honest conversations about what it costs to run a city of our size, what service levels Edmontonians expect and how we balance expectations with concerns about rising property taxes,” Knack stated. “Even with the increases in our snow removal budget each of the last four years, I believe we need to consider further investment in snow and ice control.

“The question we must answer together — are we willing to pay for that increased service? It’s an important question Edmontonians need to answer.”

For now, Knack encouraged residents to subscribe to the city’s parking ban notification service through its website, where you can also track removal operations in real-time and an updated snow-clearing timeline.

ebowling@postmedia.com

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