Snow removal in Kelowna over Christmas had some problems

KELOWNA – It wasn’t quite Snowmageddon but the big dump in the city over the holidays still hit hard and generated lots of complaints.

The snow that began falling Dec. 27 didn’t stop until Dec. 29, infrastructure services manager Ian Wilson told Kelowna council Monday morning, Jan. 15, and when it did, it left behind 21 centimetres of snow.

“It started on Dec. 27 but we really got slammed on Dec. 28,” he said.

The near-record breaking so-called Snowmageddon that paralyzed the city in January, 2015 dumped 37 centimetres of snow on the Central Okanagan.

Around 750 Kelowna residents called the city in 2015, the majority looking for service for clogged side streets and cul-de-sacs, Wilson said.

Three years later, 728 calls for service came into city hall with again the majority of them focused on what the city designates as priority three road, the last ones to receive attention during a snow storm.

“The difference between then and now is that Snowmageddon was compressed, where we had snow over three days this time,” Wilson explained.

That meant snow removal crews had to return to priority one and two routes — main streets, bus routes and collector streets — several times over the course of three days.

“The priority one and two routes generally worked well,” Wilson said. “But we had people calling asking ‘why aren't you in my neighbourhood yet’.”

Wilson told councillors improvements made in the wake of Snowmageddon, including the introduction of snow routes and the addition of new equipment, has improved the city’s snow response.

Problems included availability of subcontractors, Wilson said, and a misunderstanding by some residents of how the priority system works.

A call made by staff to hold off clearing downtown streets was in hindsight the wrong decision, Wilson said, although it was compounded by a lack of places to store piles of snow.

Activating snow routes seemed to help and Wilson said council should consider expanding the program beyond the hillside neighbourhoods it now covers to include some or all of the city’s main streets.

Wilson said the city has to consider the role of climate change as it plans for future snow removal.

“The question is what are the weather events we are seeing and do we think we are going to see more of these events in the future,” Wilson said.

Coun. Brad Sieben echoed his comments.

“We have a plan that is working, but the question is what is the new normal,” he said. “If this is the new norm, then the question is – does the plan still work? Based on what our expectations are, the answer is probably no.”

Wilson told council a more formal snow report would be delivered to council later in the spring.

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