Halifax councillor renews call to get sidewalks cleared more quickly

A Halifax councillor says there's no excuse for sidewalks to remain clogged with snow this late in the week, even following two days of stormy weatherthat ended Monday.

"I don't have a lot of sympathy," said Waye Mason. "They decided to do sidewalk snow removal in Nova Scotia, knowing that it rains and snows and freezes,and they get paid a good chunk of money, hundreds of thousands of dollars, to do this work."

He wants to see the deadline for snow removal by contractors reduced to four-to-12 hours from the current 36 hours.

Councillorson the peninsula have tried unsuccessfully for the past six years to get the sidewalk removal standards changed and it's time to give it another try, Mason said.

It's the only way to deal with the persistent winter weather pattern in the region that involves snow followed by rain and then freezing temperatures, he said.

"We need to have contractors out there while the snow is still in progress."

Mason saidhe's gotten hundreds of complaints from his constituentsin Halifax South Downtown in the past week.

"Almost three-quarters of the people who live on the peninsula, over 70,000 of us, we walk to work or to school. So, if the sidewalks are closed,they are walking in the street or they can't get around at all if they have mobility issues."

Sarah-Lynn MacKenzie had her baby out for a stroll Thursday morning but they were on the street, not the sidewalk, in west-end Halifax.

"With the stroller, in particular, there's just so much ice and snow and lumps that we just can't get over it. So it's been a real challenge to get around."

She said she's made complaints about the slow pace of snow removal on sidewalks in past years.

Mason said he can understand delays following a massive snowstorm.

But that didn't happen this time, he said.

"So we're right around the 30-centimetre limit where we say, potentially, we can't meet our standards we were just barely there," he said.

"I think those standards could have been met if we had more equipment on the ground and if the contractors had gone out earlier. It is frustrating not to see them go out before the snow stops."

The city has the ability to fine contractors for unacceptable delays and, if city staff are required to assist with the job, to bill them.