SNOW REMOVAL

Quick Take: Our current snow removal policies were put into place in 2014 with no public consultation. It is past time for them to be reviewed by Council. A review should involve pricing out alternative policies, benchmarking the costs and service levels of Grande Prairie against other municipalities, and strong public engagement. Once it has gathered information and feedback, Council can determine if current snow service is best for our community or if changes should be made. I’ve made motions at Council to initiate a review, but those motions were defeated. This is something I continue to push for.

Following is more information about snow removal in Grande Prairie and my take.

Snow removal is one of the topics I hear about most from people.

Some people think we don’t do enough for snow removal. Some feel we spend too much on it. And a few even think we are getting it about right.

There are varied opinions on whether or not to use sand, salt, or liquid solutions. Some tell me that they like that windrows are created on both sides of the street, some think we should go back to doing them on one side only. There is also no noticeable consensus on how much snow should be hauled away and where it should be dumped.

Snow removal is a hot topic in any winter City. It effects everyone and it is expensive. That means it is worth discussing it as a community.

ON THIS PAGE

Following is basic information about how snow is moved in Grande Prairie. I also share some of the issues I see and how I would love to see the City move forward. Any mistakes or opinions expressed here belong to me and me alone.

If you don’t want to read this whole page, you can click on section links below:

Snow Removal Today

• Service Standards

• Removal on Priority and Non-Residential Roads

• Removal on Residential Roads

• Budget

• Occasionally Missed Streets

Moving Forward With Snow Removal

You can find the City’s current snow and ice policies by clicking here. These lay out the service standards which snow removal operations are expected to meet.

Some highlights:

• Highways through town are owned by the province- the City is not allowed to contribute to snow removal on them.

• Priority 1 roads are arterial roads and primary access roads for Emergency Services. They get plowed when we get 7.5 cm of accumulated snow. The target standard is a clear driving lanes within 24 hours of the end of a snowfall event.

• Priority 2 roads are collector roads. They get plowed when we get 10 cm of accumulated snow. The target standard is 5 cm or less of compacted snow within 72 hours of the end of a snowfall event.

• Priority 3 roads are non-Priority 1 or 2 roads in commercial and industrial zones. They get plowed when we get 10 cm of accumulated snow. The standard for these is to have them plowed within 5 days of the end of a snowfall event.

• Residential roads that are not Priority Roads get plowed when we get 10 cm of accumulated snow. The standard for them is to be plowed within 2 weeks of the end of a snowfall event.

• Sidewalks adjacent to City owned property get cleared of snow during Residential Snow Plowing operations.

• Pathways within utility lots and parks are not plowed unless they are links between sidewalks and pathways under City responsibility.

You can see a map of priority roads by clicking here.

Something worth noting: on priority roads, our crews don’t necessarily wait until there is 7.5 cm of accumulation to begin operations. They will often start sooner if it is obvious we are in for a big snowfall.

In our current operations, City staff use City owned equipment to remove snow on all priority roads and on all non-residential roads. During and after a major snow event, crews are often out from the very start and run 24/7 until priority roads are done.

• 6 Tandem plow trucks with front plow

• 1 single axle plow truck with front plow

• 1 1-ton sander with front plow

• 1 tandem plow truck with front/wing plow

• 5 tandem trucks (city owned)

• 6 end dump trucks (contracted)

• 1 snow blower for windrow pick-up (plus 1 back-up unit)

• 6 graders

• 5 front end loaders with angle blade plow

• 1 front end loader with bucket for use in salt and sand yards

• 2 rubber tired backhoes

• 1 municipal tractor

• 1 skid steer

• 1 tool-cat

With the current standards, residential roads are only plowed after 10cm of accumulation. This leads to residential roads being plowed less frequently than other roads- the City budgets for 5 residential passes per year. Because of their less frequent attention, the City uses private contractors for residential routes so that it does not need to maintain staffing and equipment to plow them.

When residential operations are initiated, they last for two weeks. Plows come to neighbourhoods the day before garbage removal. Typically, over 80% of streets are cleared in the first week of residential removal. Crews will return in the second week to finish the roads not completed in their first pass.

I occasionally hear about a road getting missed. If your road isn’t plowed within two weeks of the City launching residential removal, please let us know by calling 311. Most people I talk to have been very satisfied after reporting a missed road or other concern. However, if you don’t get a statisfactory response, I’m happy to help followup- email me at dbressey@cityofgp.com.

In 2019, the City budgeted $5,910,640 for snow removal. This is roughly equivalent to $12 per household per month.

Occasionally, I hear from someone that their street got missed during snow removal.

Often, upon further investigation, this person was mistaken. Their street was cared for during the previous residential clearing cycle. This person just thought one had happened more recently.

However, occasionally a street does get missed. It’s happening less and less. But it will still inevitably happen sometimes.

If you think your street got missed, the best thing to do is report it by calling 311 or getting a hold of the Citizen Contact Centre. You will get an update on the status of the road. And if it did get missed, crews will fix that quickly (often within 24 hours).

If you’ve used these methods to report an issue to our staff and are not satisfied with your followup: then I’d love to know about it. You can best do that by emailing me at dbressey@cityofgp.com.

I’d like to see us do a review of snow removal and ice control. I’d like us to discuss as a community and Council “are our current service levels what is best for the community and are there better ways to deliver this service?”

In March of 2020, I made a motion at Council Committee of the Whole about snow removal. I wanted our administration to come forward with options for how Council could go about doing a review. Unfortunately, this motion failed: Council wasn’t interested in even talking about a review. Which was disappointing.

Here is why I think a review should happen:

Snow removal is perhaps the City service which receives the most public attention. I receive many passionate comments about it. The problem? People want contradictory outcomes when it comes to snow removal.

Some people disagree on what should happen because of varied personal preferences. And some disagree because they live in neighbourhoods with very different designs. It isn’t possible to have a program that will please everyone. Which doesn’t mean we can’t get better.

There is an old adage: “you can have it fast, cheap, or good. Now pick two.”

It seems to me that snow removal follows the same principal. Some people want all their snow gone (especially those windrows!). Some people can deal with leftover snow, but they want a basic job done on their street within a day or two of a storm. And some people don't care about what happens so long as they don't pay too much for it. I do not think it is possible to make more than two of these groups happy.

At the same time, we can do better than we are doing today.

A 2019 survey found that 70% of respondents were satisfied or very satisfied with snow removal on priority 1 routes. However, 53% wanted the Snow & Ice Control budget increased and 61% were unsatisfied or very unsatisfied with this service on residential routes.

We can deliver more satisfactory service than is being offered right now. We can do this by either increasing our level of service, or by helping residents have more say in the current service.

Today’s service standards for snow removal came into effect very suddenly. During 2014, a season of very high snowfall cause many streets to become un-passable. The City had to make changes very quickly. New service standards (which are in place today) were adopted very quickly. Since this was done mid-season, there was no time for robust public engagement.

That public engagement should happen now.

We should do a good job of benchmarking the service we provide and the costs we pay against other municipalities.

We should solicit our community for ideas, questions, and concerns.

We should come up with a few different service levels which could be adopted and cost them out.

Then we should engage our residents. We should help them understand how Grande Prairie compares to other jurisdictions. We should present a few different options for future service to the community. We should do a great job of listening to what people think. Then Council should decide if our current snow removal system is serving the community well, or if it should be overhauled.

When it comes to the particulars of what we should be doing: I don’t have a strong stance. This depends too much on personal opinions. There is no right way to control snow and ice. However, whatever system we do use in the future: it should have more intention and transparency than the one we currently have.

I’d love to hear yours thoughts.

Do you agree with my thinking? Do you have push back on it? Do you have any other ideas Council should be considering?

You can email me at dbressey@cityofgp.com or call me at 780-402-4166. I participate in a lot of discussions in the GP Round Table Facebook group. I’m also always happy to meet for coffee.

Thanks for taking the time to read!

-Dylan