The buck stops with council when it comes to snow clearing, but first city staff need to attack the problems experienced in recent weeks.
A much-anticipated report on snow and ice clearing operations was presented to council Monday night, stirring an hour-long discussion over what, if anything, needed to be done to fix the issues that have plagued Prince George roads over recent weeks.
Operations superintendent Bill Gaal addressed issues and rumours that have cropped up recently, from claims the city was parking equipment to save money to not having the necessary equipment to do the job.
"Snow fleet size has not been reduced. We do have operators," he said.
According to Gaal, the city also reached out to acquire as much equipment as it could from the Prince George Airport Authority, Columbia Bitulithic and neighbouring communities.
Gaal said operations staff would be taking some time to break down and review the plowing work, but Coun. Albert Koehler expressed a desire for there to be a broader discussion.
He suggested striking a committee, but ultimately withdrew his motion, but promised it would return, following a report on that post-mortem which will return to the Feb. 24 council meeting.
And while no one wants to micro-manage the day-to-day operations, council has control over the policy which governs snow clearing.
"Our policy didn't do its job," said Coun. Garth Frizzell.
And given how much communication flowed to council via phone calls and emails from residents, Prince George citizens want councillors to be involved in some aspect, said Coun. Lyn Hall.
"It's an extraordinary event that requires us to be involved at some level," he said.
The snow storm that started Dec. 10 of last year dumped more than 40 centimetres of snow in three days and taxed the city's resources and ability to clear the 1,485 lane kilometres of roads in the ideal five days. Rather, Gaal's report said it took eight-and-a-half days to clean up and open 20,000 driveway entrances at the tune of $650,000.
"Even if we would have had every private resource historically available, that storm and the time frame over which it developed would have taxed our ability to respond within our normal five day completion goal," said Gaal.
"We have a right-sized fleet for a normal snow fall," said mayor Shari Green, who said she stood behind the staff and that they don't wake up in the morning with the intent to do a poor job.
The majority of councillors said they wanted to look at how things can be done differently. "Let's do the analysis so we can do a better job," said Coun. Frank Everitt. "The time frame we took was exorbitant."
The city needs to reconsider its snow clearing policy, agreed Koehler. "Past practices may have worked, but they may not work anymore."
But Coun. Dave Wilbur said he didn't think the policy failed.
"No matter what you plan, it's not always going to work out," he said. "Accept that stuff happens, and get on with it."
Coun. Cameron Stolz said he'd love to be "able to strike a committee and fix it" but he didn't think rushing into such a decision was going to help anyone.
Green flat-out asked Koehler not to make his motion, saying she'd rather the initiative come from staff, not a knee-jerk reaction to a community outpouring of frustration.
Laying blame was also an exercise in wasted time, said council. And though Gaal prefaced his verbal report to council with a plea to not take his comments as laying blame or making excuses, not all councillors felt it rang true.
Gaal called the statements by union leaders that the recent labour dispute had no bearing on snow clearing "disingenous."
"I wish Mr. Gaal had stuck to non-blaming," said Krause, a sentiment echoed by councillors Everitt and Koehler.
