It may be the first day of summer, but changes being planned for next winter have now been approved in order to provide plenty of advance notice to residents.
On Tuesday, Lethbridge City Council voted unanimously in favour of implementing several service level modifications for snow and ice control.
These will include:
- Starting in winter of 2022/23 (Phase 1):
- Snow routes will be declared across the city; and
- Approximately 28 km of existing snow routes will be piloted with plowing to the right
- Starting in winter of 2023/24 and continuing into winter of 2024/25 (Phase 2):
- Implement more residential plowing and less snow removal (snow removal only in the hospital area, downtown and around school zones);
- Declare snow routes more frequently; and
- Provide enforcement during snow events
- Administration report back to Civic Works Standing Policy Committee in the spring of 2025 about operating budget and resource impacts
"Council wants to thank all of the residents who took time to provide their feedback through a variety of public engagement opportunities," says Mayor Blaine Hyggen. "Through this process, we are able to implement these changes with resident input at the forefront."
"We know some of these proposed changes means we're asking residents to change their behavior when it comes to how they manage snow and ice at home," says Darwin Juell, General Manager of Transportation. "This is why we went out to the public to ask for their input and hear their concerns so we could make the appropriate recommendations."
On Tuesday, Council also voted unanimously in favour of implementing several service level modifications for Street Sweeping. These will include:
- The maintenance of current service levels for all sweeping programs;
- Enhance enforcement action; and
- Administration is to monitor the new service levels resulting from the 2020 budget reduction initiative and report back to Civic Works Standing Policy Committee in the spring of 2025 about operating budget and resource impacts.
Backgrounder:
In 2020, the Fiscal and Operational Performance Review Phase 2 recommended the City of Lethbridge modify service levels for both Snow and Ice Control and Street Sweeping.
On March 4, 2021, members of the Transportation department presented the Civic Works SPC with several suggested actions for both Snow and Ice and Street Sweeping service level modifications with a recommended action to obtain public feedback on possible service level modifications.
Lethbridge residents then provided feedback through significant engagement with virtual open houses, stakeholders meetings and online engagement surveys. The City of Lethbridge has used the feedback from this engagement to help determine the recommendations that Council approved.
At its June 8 meeting, the Civic Works SPC made the recommendations to Council.
Changes to the service levels will be further communicated to the public in the coming months to assist residents in understanding how this will affect them.
