Common Council has been told the city more than meets acceptable standards for snow plowing but does so by paying a fair bit of overtime.
Todd MacDonald of Performance Concepts Consulting says that could be reduced considerably by more evenly dividing snow clearing resources between day and night, thereby saving the city some money. He says right now there are disproportionately more resources used during the daytime hours.
MacDonald says Saint John responds early to storms, depending largely on the weather forecast, whereas some other cities wait until 5 centimeters of snow is on the ground before getting the plows out.
