City Council Motion: Private Snow Clearing

Have you ever noticed that in the middle of a snowstorm, there are several centimetres of snow covering the street but your neighbour has a freshly plowed driveway? Private snow clearing companies are often hired by property owners to clear walkways around apartment buildings and homes with driveways. In a city like Ottawa, business can be quite good.

The buckets and shovels these companies use to scoop up snow generally never touch a city street. A private operator clears a driveway, lifts the bucket on their machine, and travels to the next location over snow-covered city streets often hours before a municipal snowplow shows up. I was curious to know if this travel time, or what could be called “dead time,” is something that the city could take advantage of. That is why I am happy to say that City Council passed the motion that I put forward asking staff to review the feasibility of allowing private service providers to supplement municipal snow clearing on residential streets.

I know well that our city crews work hard and long, nighttime hours to ensure that snow is cleared adequately and quickly on our streets and sidewalks. This motion is not intended to take away the work that public employees do and replace it with private employees. Instead, this motion will determine if we can utilize the “dead time” of private operators to reduce costs and improve service delivery times, reducing stress on municipal resources.

Finding efficiencies in the way the City delivers services to residents is a priority for me. With over 6,000km of roads, we need all the help we can get especially during a winter season which sees lots of snow.