REGINA - With snow on the way for Regina soon, City Hall was discussing its snow policies at its most recent Executive Committee meeting.
A report on Regina’s winter maintenance policy was the prime topic at that meeting last Wednesday, Oct 18, with councillors hearing about proposals as well as costs for clearing the roads.
The issue has gained high profile in the city of Regina due to some heavier than expected snow seasons that have resulted in the city going over its snow budgets.
The indication from that meeting is that budget issues are a concern yet again.
Some options were presented to council at the meeting, and there is a proposal to increase the budget by $1.88 million, up from the 2023 budgeted amount of $8.55 million.
But the forecast from administration is for total expenditures based on the five year average to be $12.94 million — way above the budget.
Yet snow removal is not something the city is in a position to cut back on, due to the demand from residents for the roads to be cleared.
Councillor Cheryl Stadnichuk, who chaired last Wednesday’s meeting, acknowledged the issue was “definitely high priority for residents. And I think it’s worth noting that we have had some pretty unusual winters, some very heavy snow and more frequent snow events. So that has made the demand for residents a little bit higher.”
The biggest concern, she said, is when snow ridges are getting onto sidewalks when the snow is being cleared. Icy conditions are also a concern.
One concern from Stadnichuk is that in the last couple of years, the city has had to dip into its financial reserves to cover snow removal costs.
“We’ve dipped into the reserve and had nothing left because of some unusual winters that we’ve had. We don’t know what the weather’s going to be like with climate change, we don’t know what to expect. In the future, we might have some sense of it for next year but it would be important to start building that reserve.”
She added that administration had started coming up with a plan that “if we increase the budget somewhat now, that might be a better kind of baseline for what it would be, and we could start building the reserve that way.”
As for what the plan is for this snow season, it was noted there were several new initiatives scheduled to happen Nov. 1. Those were timed to coincide with the expected first snowfall of the season, but that snowfall now looks likely to happen a week early.
City Director of Roadways and Maintenance Chris Warren said the new initiatives focus on accountability and sharing information, and on “being really strategic in the delivery of our services.”
In particular, he said they want to reduce the amount of snow that’s placed on sidewalks and unintentionally placed in front of driveways. They also want to minimize snow ridges in some of the neighbourhoods where there is high-density living where residents require on-street parking.
“During residential plows we might do in the future, we are looking to take a little bit of a different approach in some of those neighbourhoods,” said Warren. He spoke of plowing snow in “a way that creates accessibility and a smooth driving surface while also minimizing the snow ridges.”
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