Carleton went over its snow removal budget this year as Ottawa received more snowfall, although it’s unclear how much more it cost.
Ottawa received 300 centimetres of snowfall this winter, according to Environment Canada. It increased from 203.3 centimetres in 2015-16 and 194.8 centimetres in 2014-15.
Carleton’s budget for summer landscaping and snow removal is $600,000 annually, according to Kevin Gallinger, Carleton’s director of maintenance services. Cedar Springs Limited (CSL), an outside company, does the work.
Gallinger said the budget accounts for 254 centimetres of snow, and the school pays extra for further snow removal. Carleton went over the budget in 2017, he said.
But the university isn’t sure how much it will cost them this year, Gallinger said.
“We don’t have the invoices in so I can’t say how many hours and their level of effort they had to put to clear [on March 24],” Gallinger said, in reference to the day where the city saw a snowfall of nearly 22 centimetres.
The school switched contractors from Greenbelt to CSL last November, after its contract with Greenbelt expired.
CSL needed time to adjust to snow removal on campus, according to Gallinger.
“The difference is the knowledge the contractor has of the campus,” he said.
According to Gallinger, CSL was made aware of “where the hot spots are, where there’s a lot of focus of coming out of parking lots, where people need to be able to be safe to walk.”
Kevin Lee, Carleton’s manager of grounds and moving services, works with CSL frequently. He said the snow removers focus on main pedestrian pathways first, before the smaller pathways.
“It’s really all about safety,” Lee said. “First thing you’ve got to do is get people on the campus from the roads and you’ve got to get them on the pathways to the buildings.”
Gallinger said snow removal this year had been a “challenge,” after switching contractors.
“Next winter should be better because they’ll understand what the expectations are,” he said.
According to David Phillips, a senior climatologist with Environment Canada, Ottawa had 12 days this year where it snowed at least 10 centimetres, while normally there are around four days.
“When it has snowed, there have been some heavy amounts of snow,” Phillips said.
Phillips added that Ottawa has had a lot of days where there was still snow outside. There have been 110 consecutive days of snow on the ground from Dec. 5 to now, he said.
Lee said the heavier and more frequent snowfalls posed a challenge, with more salt needed to melt ice and increase traction. Lee added the timing of snowfall also matters.
“It’d be nice if it would snow between 4 p.m. and midnight, be able to clean it up by midnight and clean it up by 8 a.m.,” he said. “It’s just not realistic.”
According to a CBC article, the City of Ottawa also went over their snow removal budget this year, for the fifth straight year. The city spent $76,900,000 on snow and ice removal in 2016, according to the article.
“What makes it difficult is that their budget season is different than their snow season,” Phillips said. He said it’s tough for cities to calculate their exact snow removal budgets, but they will always pay for it.
“[Snow removal] is sacred to people, from a safety point of view, from a convenience point of view,” he said.
Lee said Carleton saves money on snow removal compared to the city because it doesn’t need to haul the snow long distances. Snow is plowed into parking lots instead of taken long distances to be dumped.
But Phillips said we’re not in the clear yet, and there’s likely more snow ahead.
“You’ve rarely, rarely gone through April without seeing more snow,” he said. “I wouldn’t write the obituary on snow yet.”
-Photo by Angela Tilley
