Did Super Bowl curb snow clearing?
The Super Bowl broadcast appeared to have made tackling Calgary’s last major snowfall tougher, the city’s transportation manager said Monday.
A call out to city crew members and private contractors to voluntarily clear snow on Feb. 5 received a lighter response than normal, said Mac Logan.
“We did not have as many people responding to our request to do extra shifts as we otherwise would,” said Logan, who couldn’t give a comparative number.
“Council has expressed in the past we have a certain limitless ability to bring people in and that’s not the case.”
Those called, he said, didn’t mention the Super Bowl game, but “they don’t respond or say, ‘I’m not available.’”
That fall-off in voluntary crews as the full brunt of a heavy snowfall hit wouldn’t have made a massive difference in the Monday morning commute, said Logan, but it was felt.
“It couldn’t hurt. We would have been able to push more material off the roadways,” he said. “Would half a dozen more trucks made a huge difference overall in the city? No, but to individual routes, yes.”
City unionized workers who don’t want their jobs contracted out should respond more favourably to voluntary requests, he added.
Meanwhile, Mayor Naheed Nenshi on Monday joined a public chorus of concern over city snow clearing a week after the storm dumped nearly 30 centimetres of snow on Calgary.
Nenshi said he called 311 to request snow clearing at 9th Avenue and Centre Street S. after seeing a man in a wheelchair challenged by snow left by city plows.
“I saw a man in a wheelchair almost go head over heels over a windrow,” the mayor told council during question period.
A week later, Nenshi said, the windrow hadn’t been cleared.
Even so, he said city crews bolstered by private contractors did “an outstanding job in a difficult situation.”
And Nenshi called the Super Bowl connection to any snowplowing challenges “tenuous.”
Logan was asked what it would take to cut in half the time it takes to complete Calgary’s seven-day plan for snow clearing.
A $20-million boost to the current $38-million snow clearing budget would likely accomplish that goal, said Logan.
“If Calgarians wanted to go to that level of service, their property tax bill would be enormous,” he said.
Another way to address to that would be using city parking revenue earmarked for business revitalization zone use.
But Logan said the most recent, remorseless snow fall that triggered the city’s snow route protocol for the first time in three years was a challenge beyond adding more money and the round-theclock plowing efforts.
“When it’s continuously snowing, it’s like someone driving back and forth over the snow — it’s going to get packed down,” he said, adding the stubborn snowfall minimized the effectiveness of sanding efforts.
The mayor agreed certain weather conditions rendered larger budgets irrelevant. “No matter how much money you throw at it, you’re not going to fix it,” said Nenshi.