Guest Column by Darrell Dunn, Editor, The Weekly Bean
I always get a kick out of the annual conversations about Mother Nature’s habit of
dumping snow on us during that regularly scheduled season known as winter, and the resulting
outrage over people’s ability to travel our roadways—or not.
While I wouldn’t normally look to social media as a reliable source of calm, well-reasoned debate, I do enjoy the emotional outpouring about road conditions. It’s part meteorology, part therapy session, and part Olympic-
level blame allocation. Also, it reassures me daily that not getting elected was a sound life choice.
In our little corner of the universe, we maintain about 250 kilometres of roadway.
Calgary, by comparison, has over 16,000 kilometres of “lane roadway,” which is 64 times more
than us. Their population is roughly 1.35 million—only about 41 times larger. In other words, we
punch above our weight when it comes to snow clearing. We get at least one full north-south-
east-west cleaning each year, and sometimes more if Mother Nature is feeling particularly
festive. Every full citywide clearing costs roughly $1 to $1.2 million.
Calgary’s own website states: “The City does NOT clear snow from residential areas.” Having lived there for many of my adult years, I can personally testify that this is not a typo. By comparison, we actually have it
pretty good here.
Our city also has a fascinating mix of vehicles. We may well boast the highest per-capita
number of jacked-up monster trucks in Western Canada. These vehicles sit so high they can
probably see tomorrow’s weather coming, so I don’t really see snow as much of an obstacle for
them. I, on the other hand, drive a Honda Fit, which is roughly the size of a go-kart on steroids. It
does have winter tires, which helps, and a ground clearance of 5.3 inches, which does not help.
In heavy snow, you do need to be a bit thoughtful about where you put it, but so far I haven’t
needed to abandon it and walk home in shame.
To be fair, I’ve been driving in Western Canadian winter conditions for nearly six
decades, which means I’ve learned a thing or two about what not to do. I’m reasonably
comfortable knowing when to drive, when to slow down, and when to stay home and pretend I
was never planning to go out anyway.
My final comments, having been hands-on involved in city street cleaning in the past, are
that snow removal has evolved over the years and is, in my view, managed fairly well. When we
get storms like the one just after Christmas, followed by a steady drizzle of rain and snow on top
of it, any expectation that city crews can simply wave a wand and make it all disappear is…
optimistic.
There is a method to the madness: mains first, secondary roads next, and everything else when possible—assuming, of course, we’re not in the middle of the holiday season, staff are available, and taxpayers are comfortable with the cost of firing up graders and sanding trucks. One more small detail: it’s remarkably difficult to clean streets when vehicles are thoughtfully left parked on them.
The upshot of all this? Mother Nature couldn’t care less. She doesn’t read Facebook, she
doesn’t attend council meetings, and she definitely doesn’t take complaints. She just keeps
snowing.
Read more: Opinion: The end of the world – for 5 hours
