Saskatoon city government details ‘extraordinary’ snow clearing for 2022 – Saskatoon
The City of Saskatoon congratulates itself on its snow removal work over the past year.
An email released by the city claimed they “successfully overcame an extraordinary emergency snow event in December 2022 with an equally extraordinary response.”
A report outlining last year’s response will be presented to City Council on Tuesday.
The city claimed that after a 30-centimeter snowfall in December, the city’s roads were leveled faster than the expected 10-day period and the snow was cleared from the city within nine weeks. .
The city’s statement said snow removal on Priority Streets Two and Three was completed in five weeks – the fastest job ever.
“The successful management of major snow events demonstrates the City’s commitment to meeting challenges head-on, learning from its experiences and continuously improving its emergency response capabilities,” said Goran Saric, Director of Routes, Fleet and Support.
“Our response to the late 2022 snowfall demonstrated our commitment to the safety and well-being of our residents. The City of Saskatoon remains true to its commitment to providing efficient services while adapting and improving to better serve its citizens.
The city said 102,000 snow trucks were removed from the city, storing 1.4 million cubic meters of snow between the city’s snow management facilities.
According to PKBNEWS calculations, that’s enough snow to fill 560 Olympic swimming pools.
The city said the amount of snow stored was four times that of the years leading up to 2020.
The total cost of snow removal is $18 million, which is over budget.
“Nearly 90 percent of the cost was for city snow removal,” the statement said.
Earlier in August this year, the city administration presented the council with options to pay off the debt.
An allocation of $5 million from the 2024-2025 Major Capital Funding Plan is to be dedicated to the 2022 response and the remaining $13 million will be gradually repaid from approximately $800,000 in 2024 and 2025.
Saskatoon chief financial officer Clae Hack expects it will take 10 years to recoup the costs.
The city’s current snow removal budget is $14 million, and the city has now set aside approximately $160,000 each year for future interventions, in addition to debt repayment.
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