Changes are being made to the city鈥檚 snow and ice control program following lessons learned from a Feb. 27, 2024 weather event.

Several service improvement recommendations are contained in a staff report to council:

• Response zones were redrafted to deliver more consistent services across the various areas. Previously, there were 19 zones; now there are 21 zones with a truck dedicated to each zone;
• The sidewalk program has been moved to Parks Services and combined with the parks and civic properties snow program. This change aims to achieve higher efficiencies and deliver services within council-specified timelines;
• Enhanced local forecasting of events has resulted in better response planning.

The amount of snow and colder than expected temperatures on Feb. 27 caught city and provincially contracted snow crews off guard. The winter wallop slowed and snarled traffic with vehicles, including several semi trucks, spinning out Bridge Hill. The next morning dozens of city streets were extremely icy.

Crews were well prepared for the first major snowfall of 2024, in January, when the Infrastructure Operations Department knew it was coming and were able to plan.

The city's weather response is guided by a private forecasting company and will augmented by a local firm for this winter. 

鈥淭his will provide the team with increased accuracy based on local knowledge, allowing them to better prepare an appropriate response,鈥� the staff report says.

Infrastructure Operations will continue to provide media availability before and during forecasted heavy snowfalls to provide up to date information. 

The department uses a digital snow and ice dashboard that logs weather events and tracks routes and completion rates displayed in near real-time. Digital displays are also being introduced in snow clearing equipment to transition to 鈥淚n Cab鈥� service requests. Once an operator completes a route a display will show open service requests which can be marked off as complete in real-time.

The report notes that improvements to the near real-time map and dashboard overviews are needed before  making versions available to residents.

So far, the city has spent $1.7 million (Jan-Mar 2024) of its $2.8 million snow and ice removal budget.