Owen Sound council punted a motion to committee concerning looking into a potential snow windrow clearing program in the city.
Council resolved at Monday’s meeting to refer to the operations committee a motion from Coun. Carol Merton asking for support to have staff produce a report with options and costs for clearing snow-plow buildup at the end of driveways for seniors and people with disabilities.
Instead of voting on Merton’s motion at the council table, Deputy Mayor Scott Greig brought a motion to refer the matter to operations committee. It passed in a 7-1 recorded vote.
“In terms of consultation, we have five public members on the sitting public committee. This is part of their role. We look to them provide us input from members of the community,” Greig says.
Councillors did share some of their thoughts on the idea of a public snow windrow clearing program in Owen Sound, before referring the matter to committee.
Merton says she brought the issue to council because she has been hearing a lot of feedback in the community.
“I have heard many concerns from citizens and those who provide support to them, regarding the challenges about getting out of driveways due to snow windrows left during snow clearing operations,” Merton says. “Some individuals had to reschedule important medical appointments and services.”
Snow windrow clearing services are offered by several larger Ontario municipalities, usually for a fee. But some municipalities which provide the service will waive their fees for certain residents facing financial challenges. The City of Mississauga, for example, provides snow windrow clearing for seniors and people with physical disabilities for a fixed annual rate, and offers it free to those who meet certain financial assistance criteria.
The common theme among communities with public snow windrow clearing in Ontario is they are mostly larger municipalities, with populations of more than 50,000 and thereby larger tax bases.
“I have heard members of this council talk about decreasing our costs, decreasing our spending during budgets,” Coun. Travis Dodd says, while noting he would be in favour of getting a report so the public could become aware of the costs associated with providing snow windrow clearing. “This is an enhanced service. Georgian Bluffs isn’t doing this. The municipalities that are doing it, are very large municipalities.”
“When we do get winters that we do, when the banks get the way they do, of course it’s frustrating. When snow gets pushed into your driveway, of course it’s frustrating,” Dodd continues. “We all face it every morning. But, there’s got to be a realistic approach to say, if that’s what you’re looking for it’s an enhanced level of service over what we currently have.”
Coun. Melanie Middlebro’ had several concerns about the proposal. She wondered why such a service would be limited only to seniors and people with physical disabilities, and not offered to all in the city. She also worried about the cost that would be borne by the taxpayer.
“I can’t imagine any possible way I would agree to any sort of budget increase to cover this service, when it is something already that is provided in the private sector,” Middlebro’ says.
City Manager Tim Simmonds told councillors there are so many different variables with windrow clearing, and noted he worked with two different municipalities in the past that had some form of the service.
“One had an annual expense of close to $2-million per year on top of winter maintenance,” Simmonds says. “Another one was sort of a more volunteer based approach.”
Coun. Brock Hamley was also supportive of having staff produce a report with more information about options and costs for windrow clearing, but sounded more hesitant about actually supporting such a service expansion.
“There are two giant red flags for me. One is going to be what it costs,” Hamley explains. “The other factor I am a little bit concerned about, there are a lot of small businesses providing this service now. And we’re talking about reducing their incomes significantly, by providing this service ourselves. And I think we have to have some level of analysis of that, because I couldn’t support possibly support that.”
Coun. Jon Farmer was the lone vote against sending the motion to committee: “I think we’re interested in asking this question now, or not. And I think we should do that tonight.”
Aside from referring the matter to committee, no other decisions were made by council. And there’s no guarantee the issue will come back before them. The operations committee will now review the motion asking staff for a report on snow windrow clearing and costs. It would need to receive committee approval first to get back to the council table.
The next Owen Sound operations committee meeting is March 20.
