Snow removal remains a topic on everyone’s mind in Saskatoon, as many are questioning if the city’s method of removal is as effective as it should be.
According to Ward 5 councillor Randy Donauer, he believes there is a big fault in the system.
“The city has a map online showing the progress that is being made in our priority streets and several days in I pulled up that map, and you could see a glaringly absent amount of work,” said Donauer.
According to Donauer, certain areas of the city get better snow removal than others due to varying performance by individual contractors. He added that the city picks contractors mainly based on who has the lowest price tag, leaving many residential areas in his ward with extremely late or poorly-done snow removal.
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“I think I had a disproportional amount of complaints, I had a lot of issues with rutting and bumping on my streets,” said Donauer.
At the city council meeting on Wednesday, Donauer proposed monitoring the performance of contractors and only awarding the best and most efficient tenders going forward.
“I think that would drive our business partners to say, ‘Not only do I want to come in with a good price, I want to do really good work for the city because that is going to affect whether I get the contract next year,'” said Donauer.
Cost efficiency plays a big factor in snow removal, but Donauer believes this path with ultimately save the city more money in the long run, saying that some streets are done so poorly that they have to get new contractors to re-do those areas.
The motion to perform these reviews on winter road maintenance contractors was passed unanimously with no further questions being made by council.
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