(Quebec) Skyrocketing fuel prices, labor shortages, inflation… Quebec City’s snow removal policy finds itself in a perfect storm, to such an extent that senior officials are wondering whether should not reduce services and “citizen expectations”.
The cost of snow removal is skyrocketing in Quebec, officials revealed on Monday during a plenary session at Quebec City Hall on snow removal. The 27 degrees Celsius on the thermometer gave a somewhat unusual air to these exchanges, which lasted all afternoon.
Snow removal cost Quebec City $82 million last year. This is 35% more than the 61 million of 2021.
However, the capital has just adopted a snow removal policy for the 2020-2030 decade, which provided for more services. But the explosion of costs is turning everything upside down.
“It is clear that we will not be able to deliver all that. There is a reflection to be done, ”launched Alain Tardif, deputy director general of local services at the City of Quebec, on Monday.
“You, the elected officials, I imagine that you will have to debate about the information that is given to you, added Mr. Tardif. But our recommendation is that we have to question the level of service, the expectations of citizens. There is a collective reflection to be had. »
Municipal officials presented a wealth of data that tends to show that Quebec City is one of the cities that clear snow the most systematically in the province. However, this zeal resulting from the policy of 2020 is perhaps no longer within the reach of taxpayers today.
“There is a world between 2020 and 2023, launched Marie-Pierre Raymond, director of the traffic lane maintenance process. In 2020 there were McDonalds open 24 hours. There was no labor problem, the Bank of Canada’s key rate was at 0.25% and is now at 4.75%. There was no war in Ukraine and supply chains were fine. »
Senior officials recommend that elected officials review snow removal. The scraping of the streets and sidewalks must remain the priority according to them, because it is about the safety of the citizens, they hammered.
But last winter, Quebec moved the equivalent of 28 Videotron Centers to its snow dumps, said Ms.me Raymond, borrowing a unit of measurement specific to the capital. We should therefore think about the relevance of picking up less snow on the side of the streets, or doing it less quickly.
“In the Rivières district, for example, with wide streets, can you only scratch? It may be a little less clean, but it’s still safe. The number of transports is reduced. It’s more reasonable in terms of snow removal, GHGs, costs,” said Marie-Pierre Raymond, for example.
According to her, such a solution – leaving the snow at the curb – cannot be applied in the city center, but could in less dense areas.
Monday’s plenary session had been requested by opposition politicians after the weekend of February 11. Quebec was then in the middle of Carnival and its popular pee-wee tournament was in full swing. A snowfall that fell during the festivities had been poorly cleared of snow in Old Quebec, to the taste of several elected officials.