One of the city's snow-clearing vehicles helps plow snow on King Street. (Staff photo)
Mayor Don Darling says he’s pleased with the city’s snow-clearing efforts in the wake of the first storm of 2021 last weekend.
In all, Saint John saw around 15 centimeters of snow, and parking bans were declared in different parts of the city Saturday and Sunday nights.
“The first (storm), there’s always a few bugs to iron out,” Darling said. “Our management team is working through all the feedback.”
However, Darling says their efforts to clear snow will always leave some residents demanding more.
“We got feedback, and it’s important, and we hear it,” he said. “And we got (feedback) last year, and the year before that, and the year before that, and the year before that, and the year before that.”
“Snow just seems to be one of those things people want to give us a lot of feedback on. Some of it is not as good as I’d like to read, and some of it is fantastic.”
Despite some of the negative feedback, Darling says he remains confident the city’s snow-clearing crews are up to the task.
To an extent, the mayor says messy winters are part of what you sign up for when you live in New Brunswick.
“It’s winter in the Maritimes. It’s going to be difficult. The weather shifts, it changes,” said Darling.
Saint John has allotted $6 million toward its road and sidewalk clearing efforts for winter 2021, an amount that includes service reductions since last year to some parts of the city.
Service cuts were made as part of last year’s financial sustainability report, which was meant to curb the municipality’s $10 million deficit.
Darling says he understands residents would like to see improvements to snow-clearing services, but he’s not sure where they would find money to bolster the effort.
“Do we take it from parks? From transit? From recreation? From roads in the summer and pot hole repair?” Darling asked. “It’s complex, and we’re not going to be able to instantly clean up everybody’s road.”
The mayor cites the city’s 1,100 kilometers of roads and more than 240 kilometers of sidewalks that are scheduled for plowing as barriers to providing instant relief from winter weather.
“I recognize we will not satisfy everybody, but I am confident that our crews are doing the best they can. They’re working to get better all the time, and we deeply care about the feedback we get from citizens.”
The mayor encourages residents to look at the $158 million 2021 budget to see how challenging it can be to reallocate funds.
“I would urge you to go down through every line,” said Darling. “I have favourites, I have biases too. But if I want more money for my favourites, where do I take the money from? It’s a very interesting exercise when you’re actually in the seat and you have to make those decisions.”
