A new city procedure has set timelines for when snow needs to be off the streets.
During Wednesday night's meeting, city council approved a new snow and ice control procedure that calls for all city streets to be plowed within five days of a snowfall.
The change was a result of the review of winter operations by Mercury Associates, which found the city to be lacking in some of their pre-winter planning.
The approved alteration places main arterial roads, the downtown central business district, priority hills, the hospital district and civic facility entrances, parking lots and pathways on the same priority level to be cleared within 48 hours of the end of a 10- to 15-centimetre snowfall.
Currently, downtown streets are the first-night priority, with other main roads cleared once the core roads are finished.
The second priority roads would be changed to all bus routes that are not main arterial roads and all commercial/industrial roads. Residential streets are to be cleared within 72 hours of the second-priority roads getting plowed.
Coun. Dave Wilbur cautioned against any public misunderstanding about the change.
"That could mean if we have a snowfall of five or six days, it's going to take more than the five days that is suggested. It's something that is fluid," Wilbur said.
When staff looked at heavy snowfalls or days of continuous snow, they developed the timelines based on the end of the last snowfall for that five days, said associate public works director Gina Layte Liston.
"There has been a great amount of work being done to make sure we have those graders loaders and dump trucks available for us to have that five-day timeframe," she said. "This council procedure is based on the fact at the end of the last snowfall event we have five days to get all of those roads cleared."
Council also approved the first three readings of a new bylaw regulating winter parking rules. The legislation sets out a specific snow and ice control routes and time periods where vehicles are not supposed to park or stop to ease plowing.
The bylaw limits overnight parking annually between Oct. 15 and April 15 from 10 p.m. to 7 a.m. in the city's first-priority snow clearing areas - main arterial roads, the hospital district and priority hills. On-street parking in the downtown central business district - bordered by First and 15th Avenues and Vancouver and Queensway Roads - would be restricted between midnight and 7 a.m.
