City to take on sidewalk debate

Expected to plow ahead with snow-clearing study once guidelines come

KITCHENER — This may be the year Kitchener council finally grapples with the issue of sidewalk snow clearing.

The issue was one of the most frequently raised during public consultations for the 2018 budget, which council approved this week. Councillors say they’re hearing from more and more residents who would be willing to see their taxes rise if the city were to take over responsibility for shovelling city sidewalks.

“I think we have to go down that road,” said Coun. Frank Etherington. “I’ve been getting a lot more calls and comment and emails from people who say they’re willing to pay up to a $50 increase on their taxes in order to get the city more involved in clearing sidewalks.”

But council won’t be looking at the issue until long after the snow is gone. In June, city staff will present council with a comprehensive review of all areas of winter maintenance, on roads, sidewalks and trails. It would look at different options for snow clearing, provide cost estimates, and possibly suggest pilot projects to test out different options.

The city is waiting until then because the province is expected to release long-awaited guidelines on minimum standards for road and sidewalk maintenance at the end of February, and it makes sense to see what those are before coming up with a city plan, said Denise McGoldrick, Kitchener’s director of operations for environmental services.

Right now, the city requires owners to clear the sidewalk in front of their property down to bare pavement, within 24 hours after a snowfall. Bylaw officials respond to complaints about unshovelled walks, issuing a warning for a first offence. If it hap-

pens again, a contractor will do the job and bill the property owner.

But more residents are saying that system simply isn’t working.

The Tri-Cities Transport Action Group carried out a study on 12 streets in Kitchener last winter and found that people walking as little as 50 metres had a 50/50 chance of hitting an uncleared patch of sidewalk.

Getting around the city in winter is “frustrating and difficult at best” for people with mobility problems, said Sharon Giles, who sits on the Grand River Accessibility committee. “Your neighbour may have shovelled just fine, and the neighbour three doors down may have also done a good job, but the two homes in between have not done their duty and you are not able to safely get where you need to go.”

The city’s pedestrian charter commits to creating a safe, easy and convenient network so people can walk throughout the city, she noted at the budget consultation meeting. “I don’t recall any footnote that said it was only for fair weather,” she said.

The city looked at the issue in November 2016, when staff estimated property taxes would have to jump at least 2.5 per cent — adding about $27 to the average tax bill — if the city plowed all 1,200 kilometres of sidewalks.

Gary Megaffin, who has been talking to city officials about the issue for almost three years, is skeptical. He says at least nine cities in Ontario, many much smaller than Kitchener, are able to find the money to clear sidewalks. For many, the service accounts for less than one per cent of their operating budget.

“We get report after report after report, and nothing’s happening,” he said Tuesday.

He argues that seniors are the fastest-growing demographic in the city, and the city needs to find a way to make the city accessible for them and to ease the burden of having to clear sidewalks or face fines.

On the one hand, councillors say the issue is a priority. “If we’re encouraging more people to walk, if we’re encouraging more people to rely on transit, if we’re wanting to make our community more accessible, this is something we need to do a better job of,” said Mayor Berry Vrbanovic.

On the other hand, councillors raise a number of concerns that suggest the issue won’t be resolved quickly. Coun. Dave Schnider worried that city-wide clearing could set up false expectations with residents who expect perfectly clear walks down to the pavement, within 24 hours. Vrbanovic notes that the region would have to play a role, since many sidewalks are on regional, not city, roads. City staff say complaints jumped dramatically in cities that brought in city-wide sidewalk clearing.

But for many residents, such as Gehan Sebah, the issue boils down to a basic question: “If the sidewalk belongs to the city why am I shovelling it?”