Ottawa $7.6M over budget for snow-clearing in 2015

The City of Ottawa ran a deficit inits winter operations budget in 2015 for the fourth year in a row.

It spent $67.4 million to clear snow and applysalt to roadsand sidewalksin 2015, $7.6million morethan whatit budgeted, according to final figures for 2015 spending.

Just months into the calendar year, staff knewthe citywould end up in the red in 2015 because of all the snow it cleared and salt it usedin January, February and March.

The mild beginning to the current winter saved the city some money, but then thelarge snowfallthat hit Ottawa at the end of December pushed winter operationsspending further into deficit.

Unpredictable weather

"It's difficult to put that budget right on a particular number with the unpredictability of the weather,"said Luc Gagn, the city's manager of road services.

Last wintersaw record-cold temperatures, he said, while early 2016 has kepthis crews busy with severalfreeze-thaw cycles.

Gagncould not say whether the recent record snowfall followed by rain and abig melt have put thecityon course to blow its winter operations budget yet again.

The citydidadda few million dollars to the2016 budget, bringingplanned spendingto $63 million.

But the solution, according to the mayor,is notpouring more money into snow and ice cleanup.

Time to relax standards?

Instead, the cityneeds to look at ideas the auditorgeneral put forward to make winter operations more efficient suggestions that includedhavingmore snow removal done by contractorsandconsider relaxingservicestandards.

For example, after the last big storm, Watson says he called the roads branch to stop a crew that was about to remove a snow bank near his home because he felt there was still plenty of room for traffic to pass by.

"I think we need to use judgment.There are some instances where we go overboard on snow removing and there are other instanceswhere people are upset we're not doing enough," said Watson.

"We have to get to a point where, one, the system is affordable and secondly, that we're not always in a situation where we're scrambling to find money at the end of the year."

Consulting firmKPMG is currently conductinga wide-ranging review of the city's winter operations,the first such study since amalgamation.

The review is expected tolook at such issues as changing weather patternsand the city's snow clearing standards, which are far higher than the Ontario average.

Areport is expected thisspring.