Halifax is now officially over its snow removal budget for the winter

HALIFAX – It may come as little surprise, but Halifax has officially gone over its snow-removal budget for this fiscal year.

As of Feb. 28, the city has spent $20,186,200 on its winter operations after budgeting for just under $20 million in 2014-15.

Halifax spokeswoman Jennifer Stairs said most of the cost overrun is due to employee overtime hours and equipment rental.

“We’ve had an unusual winter where we’ve had some costs we wouldn’t necessarily incur in a regular season, if there is such a thing as a regular season,” she said.

Tweet This Click to share quote on Twitter: "We've had an unusual winter where we've had some costs we wouldn't necessarily incur in a regular season, if there is such a thing as a regular season," she said.

The most recent figure does not account for costs incurred in March, which includes the rental of graders to break through ice. Since Feb. 27, the city has had at least one grader crew out per night, at a cost of $10,000 each for each 12-hour shift.

Going over its winter operations budget is not something new for the city. Over the past five years, expenditures have consistently exceeded the budget.

However, up until the 2012-13 fiscal year, the municipality made a conscious decision to underfund the budget and cover any cost overruns with other city funds.

In 2013-14, council increased the budget to $19,995,200 to more appropriately fund the snow removal program. That same year, the municipality took on the snow clearing of an additional 200 kilometres of sidewalks and the winter weather was particularly bad. The city still ended up exceeding the budget by approximately $4 million.

Many councillors and residents are now wondering if future budgets should be modified.

“I think what you’re seeing is a consistent trend of $4-5 million in overages,” said Coun. Waye Mason, who represents Halifax South Downtown.

“I think if we want to know that we’re putting our best effort forward, it would be better to have those resources there when they’re planning their attack on snow and ice in the summer rather than have that money come into the budget very late in the game.”

Staff will present an end-of-season report to coucnil in late spring or early summer that will review this winter’s snow removal program. Council will have the option to change policy and look into increasing future budgets.

“I can’t imagine a circumstance under which council would not talk about changing the way we approach snow removal,” Mason said. “I think that just to be intellectually honest…the budget should be $5 million higher.”