Thank you to our City’s Roads and Parking Services Team
If you love winter as much as I do you were excited to see last Monday’s record snow fall. But for the City’s Roads and Parking Services Team clean up has certainly been a challenge! Crews have been out in full force across the City these past few days clearing over 12,900 lane kilometres of roads and 2,300 kilometres of sidewalks and pathways. Cleaning up after storms like the one we had certainly brings a focus to the conditions of our sidewalks and some of the pathways we use in our daily commute.
Climate change has created havoc with our weather as we bounce from extreme cold to thaws creating icy patches everywhere that make walking and driving difficult.
When I was first elected to represent Bay Ward I put forward a motion asking the City to reassess the City’s Winter Maintenance Standards for roadways, sidewalks and other pedestrian facilities. Since then I have been committed to working with the City staff, to ensure that more emphasis be put on our pedestrian and cycling routes, taking into consideration the various populations such as seniors, persons with disability, and low-income. We need to keep moving in a thoughtful direction and this will involve getting resident’s input on our City’s new Transportation Master Plan .
I want to thank all residents for their patience this past week and for taking the time to contact my office with their feedback in relation to our winter maintenance team. I encourage you to report any issues regarding road or sidewalk maintenance to the City through 311.
The Roads and Parking Services Team are preparing to begin snow removal operations this weekend. Residents can expect to see the City crews out in the community placing temporary No Parking signs in snowbanks along the side of the roadway to prepare for snow removal. Snow removal operations will begin Sunday evening on the arterial and collector roads. This requires them to physically remove snow from the side of the road and transport it to one of the City’s snow storage facilities.
Thank you to the many staff who have been and continue on with the clearing efforts to keep our residents safe.
