Winter of our discontent Snowy sidewalks a nightmare for the mobility-challenged; mayoral candidates have ideas they hope gain traction with voters By: Joyanne Pursaga Posted: 7:00 PM CDT Monday, Oct. 17, 2022

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This article was published 16/10/2022 (800 days ago), so information in it may no longer be current.

Peter Tonge recalls the frustration of his wheelchair getting stuck in the snow while he attempted to travel down a sidewalk near his home at least once a week last winter.

“I take my power chair in wintertime and I often get stuck and pedestrians have to come along and move me along the sidewalk or pull me out of a snowbank… so it takes away a great deal of independence,” said Tonge, who lives near Grant Park Shopping Centre. “We won’t even talk about the service roads and back lanes because those aren’t even done (properly) either.”

Tonge said he sometimes had to wait up to 10 minutes in the cold until someone happened by to help him out of his frequent predicaments in the impassable, inadequately plowed and deep-rutted sidewalks for much of last winter, forcing him to stay inside on the coldest and snowiest days.

“In the summer, the mall is right there, there’s lots of nice little shops and restaurants in the neighbourhood and I make good use of all of that. But once the first major snowstorm comes, that’s the end of all of that until the spring,” he said.

Tonge said after the final three storms of what seemed to be a never-ending winter last year, the city didn’t bother to clear some of the sidewalks near his place. Others that had been visited by crews weren’t scraped down to the concrete, leaving enough partially packed snow and ice to make travel difficult, if not impossible, for him.

In his ideal world, the city would clear the walkways down to bare pavement within two days after a snowfall and prioritize clearing in areas — such as the one he lives in — with large numbers of apartment-dwelling seniors and people with disabilities. He’d also like to see more oversight to ensure snow-clearing crews accurately report the status of their work.

The city didn’t meet its own standards last winter, which require sidewalks adjacent to major routes and collector streets to be cleared within 36 hours after an “average” storm ends, with residential street sidewalks cleared within five working days after plowing starts. During last winter, it took an average of 98 hours to clear main-route sidewalks, 156 hours for those on collector streets and 218 hours along residential routes, according to a recent city report.

While last winter’s particularly harsh and stormy conditions didn’t help, Tonge said impassable streets have been a growing problem for years.

With advance voting already underway to select the next city council, some candidates running to take over the mayor’s office are offering ideas to improve the situation.

Kevin Klein says it’s time to increase the $35 million annual snow-clearing budget.

“The fact that our snow budget has remained the same (for years and) we’re not looking at cost-of-living hikes…. It tells me we don’t know how to budget properly,” said Klein.

The city expects to end the year with a $40 million overrun on its snow-clearing budget after trying — and mostly failing — to meet the standard targets storm after storm.

“I would think if you look at the budget and you look at how the city has grown…. We obviously have to increase the snow budget,” said Klein, adding he also order a full review of the city’s policies.

He said he’d push for sidewalk clearing to get higher priority than bike lanes. The city would then track bike-lane use to determine if further adjustment is needed, he said.

“We have a lot of seniors and people with mobility issues that are constantly calling with complaints… that their streets, their sidewalks aren’t done, that they can’t get to (Transit Plus), they can’t get to the bus and these are priorities for the City of Winnipeg,” he said.

Frontrunner Glen Murray, who held the job from 1998 to 2004, said he would devote extra money to clear sidewalks and intersections to a bare pavement level in specified zones where large numbers of seniors and people with mobility challenges live.

Murray said that would help those who are the most negatively affected by deep snow and ice ruts.

“They complain that the snow removal… is not sufficient for them to get out with a walker or a wheelchair or a cane,” he said. “I’d like to… set aside additional money for areas (where) we can offer that higher standard of snow removal.”

Murray said he’d also boost the amount of money in the city’s “snow bank,” a reserve dedicated to snow clearing. He said that reserve allows council to set budgets based on average annual snowfall, then deposit any surpluses into the reserve. The city could then withdraw from it to cover extra costs in years that require more clearing.

“I think one of the things that we need to do is sort of adjust the snow bank. I think we need to have a little bit of a larger surplus (because) we seem to be raiding reserves right now. Snow-clearing costs can swing by tens of millions of dollars (each year),” he said.

Scott Gillingham has promised to create neighbourhood action teams comprised of about 30 cross-trained workers who could help plow sidewalks, among other duties.

“They could be available to the (city’s chief administrative officer) to be directly assigned to supplement the work of other city crews… or, in the case of a heavy snowfall, be sent to clear sidewalks faster in key problem areas throughout the city,” said Gillingham.

He said he expected those crews would require about $3.5 million to operate in 2023, reaching a total operating investment of $15.6 million by 2026.

“I believe it’s also time for us to review, in the 2023 budget, the last five years of snowfalls and see whether or not it’s time to adjust the snow-clearing budget.”–Scott Gillingham

A former finance chairman on council, Gillingham said he’d also re-examine the size of the snow-clearing budget.

“We’re having this conversation in the context of last winter’s snowfall, which produced the third-most snow in (the) recorded history of Winnipeg. It was an anomaly. But I believe it’s also time for us to review, in the 2023 budget, the last five years of snowfalls and see whether or not it’s time to adjust the snow-clearing budget,” he said.

Shaun Loney would like the city to launch an app that lets Winnipeggers quickly report snow-clearing problems, such as missed spots or large snow drifts, which he said could also take some pressure off 311.

“It’s an opportunity to rethink how we’re doing things and some of these innovations will help…. We’ve got to adjust so that we’re used to more of the freezing and thawing, as well, because there’s just going to be more of that going forward,” said Loney, noting climate change is making weather patterns less predictable.

Complaints about deep snow that can melt and refreeze into treacherous, uneven ruts have increased in recent years.

Robert-Falcon Ouellette said he believes municipal leaders should study how other winter cities clear snow and add more local street-maintenance supervisors to inspect plowing efforts.

“The challenge, I think, is the overall supervision of the contractors to make sure that the work is done properly,” said Ouellette.

While the candidates are floating their ideas during the campaign, efforts to improve the situation have been going on at city hall in the aftermath of last year’s Snowmageddon.

In July, council approved $3 million to buy 15 more sidewalk-clearing machines. Staff also suggested eventually contracting out another 506 kilometres of sidewalk plowing, with a potential for 217 kilometres to be transferred next winter. A council-ordered comparison found it would cost between $471,656 and $759,398 per year for the city to contract out that portion of the work, depending on the number of plowing events required. City staff estimate it would cost between $711,091 and $759,921 for city delivery of the same service (including the price to lease more equipment).

In September, council debated the decision and its impact on union agreements before referring the matter back to council’s public works committee for further discussion.

“Everything we could (use last winter) we put out there. If we’re going to have the same winter, we can expect the same level of service…. We don’t have any change in our resources.”–Michael Cantor

With that recommendation in limbo and an expected 10- to 12-month wait for additional sidewalk-clearing machines, Winnipeggers can expect to see a similar level of snow-clearing service this year, if we’re hit with the same amount of snow as last winter, said Michael Cantor, Winnipeg’s streets maintenance manager.

“Everything we could (use last winter) we put out there. If we’re going to have the same winter, we can expect the same level of service…. We don’t have any change in our resources,” he said.

Meanwhile, the city will also crack down on contractors who don’t complete snow clearing on time, starting next winter. Fines that currently kick in for uncompleted work 36 hours after an operation starts will be applied within 12 hours of a scheduled operation instead. The city will also revamp its annual snow-route parking ban, which currently prohibits parking on key routes between 2 a.m. and 7 a.m. from Dec. 1 to Feb. 28. Under the new rules, the city could begin or end the ban at any point between Nov. 1 and April 30.

Public works crews also plan to begin reporting on snow-clearing completion using segments of an area map, not just a percentage of each area that has been cleared, which Cantor said he expects will improve communication.

Joyanne.pursaga@freepress.mb.ca

Twitter: @joyanne_pursaga

Joyanne Pursaga
Reporter

Born and raised in Winnipeg, Joyanne loves to tell the stories of this city, especially when politics is involved. Joyanne became the city hall reporter for the Winnipeg Free Press in early 2020.

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