It’s not like Ottawa has received a lot of snow this winter.
And we certainly haven’t seen much snow lately. Our biggest snowfall, 18 centimetres, happened over three weeks ago on January 3rd.
So why are some city streets still plagued with snowbanks so wide that two lanes have been narrowed down to one, and parking is almost impossible?
“(It) makes me actually really nervous parking my car on the street because any wide truck can barely get through,” says Brenna Furlong. “I wouldn’t be surprised if I got hit one day.”
“We’ve had some complaints,” says Ottawa Mayor Jim Watson. “And we’ve started to address those.”
Temporary snow removal signs have popped up on streets around the city and crews have been busy scooping up snowbanks and hauling them away by the truck load.
Part of the delay, according to Watson, is that we haven’t received a lot of snow – at least not all at once. “It snows a little bit,” he says. “It’s not enough to remove the banks. And then it snows again.”
He says this gradual accumulation is often compounded by people shovelling their walks and driveways. In some areas the yards are so small they invariably push it onto the road to become part of the snowbank. And, between the road and the sidewalk, there’s very little room to put it.
The City has also been using the relative lack of snow to save a little money. Last year’s snow removal budget ran an estimated $14-million deficit. “It’s safe to say we’re saving significant money because we don’t have as much snow as we did last year,” says Watson.
That said, crews are now out in some areas of the City, finally getting around to some long-awaited snow removal.
