Snow-clearing agreement reached between Charlottetown, province

The City of Charlottetown has signed a seven-year contract with the province to handle snow clearing on a dozen roads.

Charlottetown will pay $350,000 a year for the province to clear 25 kilometres of city roads.

"These are the higher-volume streets, the main thoroughfares through the city, so they're asking for a higher level of service, and we're going to provide that," said Darren Chaisson, the province's director of highway maintenance.

Provincial plows used to handle major routes in Charlottetown like North River Road and St. Peters Road.

The province was charging the city just $100,000 a year for the service and wasn't recouping its costs, said Chaisson.

So five years ago, the province backed away and private contractors took over the work.

The contracts were up for renewal this year, but Charlottetown's public works manager Paul Johnston said the city wasn't impressed with any of the offers.

Salt and de-icing included in the deal

"Some of the proposals we saw were a little bit higher than we felt we had the ability to pay, some weren't at the level that we were hoping to achieve," he said.

The city then went back to the province and they came to a deal.

The price tag will also cover the cost of salt and de-icing, which wasn't the case when the province did it last time, said Johnston.

After two intense winters that left a lot of residents frustrated with the speed of snow clearing, the city decided it's worth spending a little more, said Johnston.

Council has approved a $500,000 increase to this winter's snow-clearing budget, some of thatgoingto new equipment and some to pricier contracts.

"We feel we're paying a little more for a higher level of service," said Johnston.

"So basically on all the fronts we're acting contractors and in-house there's an increased level of service, and an increased level of cost that we'll be incurring."