Councillor defends downtown snowclearing

A city councillor says some downtown businesses aren’t doing their part to keep sidewalks clear and unfairly blaming the city. Some downtown restaurant owners criticized city snowclearing efforts following Thursday’s snowfall, saying a lack of parking spots hurt business on Valentine’s Day, the busiest night of the year for some.

Coun. Jonathan Galgay, chairman of the city’s public works committee, told council Monday night “the city stepped up” after the downtown development commission stopped chipping in to an “enhanced” sidewalk-clearing contract that ran from January to March each year.

“But when I got calls this past weekend from business owners and I went downtown and met with them, there were businesses downtown that never even had the front of their doors shovelled, asking when are we bringing our crews down to do that,” said Galgay. “And yet there were other businesses that had in front of their shops cleared to the best of their ability, and I commend them for doing that.”

Paul Mackey, the city’s director of pub- lic works, said the city took over responsibility this year for an expanded area of downtown at a cost of about $85,000 for the three months, as opposed to about $25,000 for the previous, more limited contract, which allowed for sidewalk clearing when snow reached 10 centimetres. The new contract clears snowfalls above five centimetres, he said, and, unlike the previous arrangement, includes salting.

He said the city doesn’t remove snow downtown on Friday or Saturday nights.