City issues nearly 2,500 tickets for icy sidewalks

Remember our winter this year? It started earlier and lasted longer.

One of the consequences of that long, cold nightmare: a spike in tickets to property owners for leaving icy, snowy sidewalks.

Between Oct. 1, 2017, and April 18, the city issued 2,428 tickets for failing to remove snow and ice from sidewalks after a snowfall. That compares to 1,817 tickets in the same time frame last year.

Bylaw officers issued 1,422 tickets in 2015-16 and 1,665 tickets in 2014-15.

Sidewalk scofflaws can be fined $100 for a first offence. Officers can increase fines to $200 for subsequent tickets but that’s at the officer’s discretion, said city spokeswoman Chrystal Coleman.

Citizens have 48 hours to remove snow and ice from walkways after a snowfall.

“In situations of ongoing or continuous snowfall, freeze-thaw cycles or slip and fall incidents, we may enforce before this time frame,” Coleman said in an email.

When a complaint comes in about an icy or dangerous sidewalk, officers usually issue a warning, giving the property owner seven days to take appropriate action. A followup inspection is conducted within 10 days, and if the resident still hasn’t cleared the area, the city does the work and sends the resident a bill. Repeat offenders are simply ticketed.

Albertans slip and fall on ice and snow more than people in most other provinces.

Data from the Canadian Institute for Health Information showed nearly 41 Albertans per 100,000 were hospitalized after slips and falls on winter streets.

Fall-related hospital admissions between 2015-2016 cost, on average, $19,000 per admission, with visits lasting 17 days.

Fall-related emergency visits cost an average of $411.