Snow routes and snow removal have been a hot topic these past few days as many have taken to social media or have called City Hall to complain about the process. Many are not pleased and point out that it took three days before city buses were back on the road and it's been four days for school buses, something that has not happened in recent memory.

It's been suggested that we've been spoiled by the soft winters of the last three or four years but residents have been quick to point out what appears to be no clear policy on snow plowing. Many posts on social media question why one area of the city has been cleared while another heavily traveled street is still covered in snow. For example, Fairford Street East starting at 4th Avenue, which used to be home to the Union Hospital, was cleared within a day but it's now a residential area while High Street West, home to Moose Jaw Paramedics, saw vehicles stuck and offered no spots to park for customers at local businesses.

Mayor Fraser Tolmie said changing something like this is challenging. "That's what we're always confronted with... these are the challenges and we are learning, unfortunately through some old processes."

Tolmie even said he was a little confused as to why the street was cleared and still marked as a priority one road, since the hospital is no longer on that street.

Moose Jaw's Snow Route Policy

The snow removal policy was updated in 2013 after a winter that saw record setting amounts of snow and one of the major changes was the Snow Route policy. The city embarked on a significant information campaign to teach drivers where they could and could not park after a snow event of 5-10cm. According to the policy, parking is supposed to be limited to one side of the street on the designated snow route to allow the snow plow to do its job and then the parking restriction flips to the other side of the street the next day.  This year, a blanket no parking order on Priority One Snow Routes was issued, causing confusion with some property owners left with no place to park.

City Engineer Josh Mickleborough has said that there are conflicting policies at City Hall and it's difficult to try and determine which one is more important than the other. He plans on presenting a report to council in the near future to try and update all of the snow removal policies to create a homogenous plan of action when we do get a serious dump of snow.

Tolmie also recognizes the conflicting policies saying it's something that's been on their radar since being elected in 2016. He maintains that the city is following the policy but they're limited by the resources that they have available.