The voting by Oshawa Council on my April 3, 2023 Snow Clearing Improvements Notice of Motion (below) seconded by Councillor Neal, was divided into 3 parts:
Council approved 1 and 2;
but 3 about equipment (where windrow clearing was mentioned) lost by six No votes (Chapman, Giberson, Gray, Marimpietri, Marks, Nicholson)
to four YES votes (Kerr, Lee, McConkey, Neal) (with Mayor Carter absent).
Whereas the City is committed to providing snow clearing services that make the City safe, and
Whereas this important municipal service is to be delivered in an effective and efficient manner with service standards appropriately set, monitored and delivered upon and;
Whereas the City has operational service staff who are dedicated to continuing to find ways for improvement;
Now therefore in preparation for the 2023-2024 winter season Council directs staff to
1. formulate a plan to initiate regular resident feedback surveys that will gather customer feedback and satisfaction data over the period of winter maintenance operations;
2. review what adjustments to the City’s snow clearing response plans can be made during heavy snow events when the expected snowfall exceeds 6 inches (15 cm) or more in 12 hours or 8 inches (20 cm) or more in 24 hours;
3. investigate the City of Oshawa buying or renting for the 2023-2024 winter season;
a) a snow plow with articulating blade to help with windrow clearing;
b) a snow melter to assist with major accumulation of snowbanks;
and report back to Committee on their findings before the 2024 budget deliberations.
From surprising comments made by Councillor Nicholson some may think that a windrow clearing report had actually been done.
None ever was.
Backstory FYI:
The last general snow clearing report was done by KPMG in 2019 and presented to Committee in Jan, 2020 https://app.oshawa.ca/.../01-20-2020/REPORT_CS-20-05.pdf
It never addressed a city-wide windrow clearing program and never addressed the fact the City of Oshawa has been lacking proper equipment for such a program.
Last year my Notice of Motion about windrow clearing on the January 24, 2022 Council meeting agenda (below), was referred to the February 14, 2022 Community Services Committee meeting and died at Committee. It never went to Council because the motion did not receive enough votes at Committee.
"Whereas the City frequently receives complaints from residents about windrows caused by the snow ploughs, especially on elbow streets, corner lots, courts and cul-de-sacs;
Whereas improvements may be found with staff reviewing the City’s snow removal process to consider snow clearing efficiencies and ways to minimize the windrows caused by snow ploughs at the end of residential driveways; and
Whereas other GTA municipalities, such as Richmond Hill and Vaughan have windrow clearing programs not exclusive to seniors, but for windrows on all residential driveways on local roads city-wide;
Therefore staff investigate a city-wide in-house Oshawa windrow clearing program for residential driveways on local roads, and prepare a report that includes
1. results of a public survey that gauges Oshawa residents’ level of interest in a city-wide windrow clearing program on local streets; and
2. gives consideration to a phased in approach for possible implementation starting with City courts, elbow streets and cul-de-sacs windrows."
That 2022 ‘failed’ motion votes were 5 NO: Councillors Kerr, Giberson, Gray, Marks and Mayor Carter and 1 YES: Councillor Neal (I was not on that committee and therefore did not have a vote.)
In my opinion, me attempting at this time the same motion for City staff to investigate windrow clearing city-wide likely would not pass.
So I worked on a motion that I believed might help get some new steps underway. Monday’s Notice of Motion was about “reviewing” and “investigating” and reporting back to Committee on continuing to find ways for snow clearing improvements before the 2024 budget deliberations. The motion was not about adding $5M to $7M to the budget, but in addition to formulating a public survey mechanism and reviewing what adjustments could provide efficiencies, it was to investigate having at least one plow in the City with an articulating blade.
The senior staff I spoke with agreed it could help with the City’s 2000+ driveways that have windrows cleared under the Snow Clearing Assistance Program for Seniors and Residents with Disabilities. I told Councillor Nicholson that before I presented the motion.
After I read and explained the Notice of Motion, which occurred near the end of the meeting, Councillor Nicholson spoke and seemed to go to great lengths to slam me for making the motion, ascribing motives to me saying “it is one of those motions if you’re a politician and wanting to score some points then you make a motion like this”, claiming it was a back-patting political and token motion. He claimed ‘he is told” there are six Oshawa plows that could be adapted with an articulating blade. If there are, I say good to hear, but there has been no open public discussion on this topic. In fact, in my exchanges with staff when I asked for their recommendations on my motion, there was no mention of this and staff only made it clear that the City of Oshawa does not have this kind of road plowing equipment.
Where Oshawa does not have one such plow, Richmond Hill has 35.
Oshawa Operations staff indicated Oshawa has a total of 45,000 residential driveways for garbage pickup, and just over 2,000 Oshawa residential driveways are cleared under Oshawa’s Snow Clearing Assistance Program.
With the information on the City of Richmond Hill’s website and from the conversation and email correspondence I received from their works manager, Oshawa can learn a lot from the City of Richmond Hill’s windrow clearing program, which currently includes 44,000 residential driveways. They make a good comparison for cost for Oshawa. I gathered, based on the information that the Richmond Hill Works Manager provided, the cost of one plow with an articulating blade today would be around $200K.
https://youtu.be/Hhu-I8ltwoM
Council approved 1 and 2;
but 3 about equipment (where windrow clearing was mentioned) lost by six No votes (Chapman, Giberson, Gray, Marimpietri, Marks, Nicholson)
to four YES votes (Kerr, Lee, McConkey, Neal) (with Mayor Carter absent).
Whereas the City is committed to providing snow clearing services that make the City safe, and
Whereas this important municipal service is to be delivered in an effective and efficient manner with service standards appropriately set, monitored and delivered upon and;
Whereas the City has operational service staff who are dedicated to continuing to find ways for improvement;
Now therefore in preparation for the 2023-2024 winter season Council directs staff to
1. formulate a plan to initiate regular resident feedback surveys that will gather customer feedback and satisfaction data over the period of winter maintenance operations;
2. review what adjustments to the City’s snow clearing response plans can be made during heavy snow events when the expected snowfall exceeds 6 inches (15 cm) or more in 12 hours or 8 inches (20 cm) or more in 24 hours;
3. investigate the City of Oshawa buying or renting for the 2023-2024 winter season;
a) a snow plow with articulating blade to help with windrow clearing;
b) a snow melter to assist with major accumulation of snowbanks;
and report back to Committee on their findings before the 2024 budget deliberations.
From surprising comments made by Councillor Nicholson some may think that a windrow clearing report had actually been done.
None ever was.
Backstory FYI:
The last general snow clearing report was done by KPMG in 2019 and presented to Committee in Jan, 2020 https://app.oshawa.ca/.../01-20-2020/REPORT_CS-20-05.pdf
It never addressed a city-wide windrow clearing program and never addressed the fact the City of Oshawa has been lacking proper equipment for such a program.
Last year my Notice of Motion about windrow clearing on the January 24, 2022 Council meeting agenda (below), was referred to the February 14, 2022 Community Services Committee meeting and died at Committee. It never went to Council because the motion did not receive enough votes at Committee.
"Whereas the City frequently receives complaints from residents about windrows caused by the snow ploughs, especially on elbow streets, corner lots, courts and cul-de-sacs;
Whereas improvements may be found with staff reviewing the City’s snow removal process to consider snow clearing efficiencies and ways to minimize the windrows caused by snow ploughs at the end of residential driveways; and
Whereas other GTA municipalities, such as Richmond Hill and Vaughan have windrow clearing programs not exclusive to seniors, but for windrows on all residential driveways on local roads city-wide;
Therefore staff investigate a city-wide in-house Oshawa windrow clearing program for residential driveways on local roads, and prepare a report that includes
1. results of a public survey that gauges Oshawa residents’ level of interest in a city-wide windrow clearing program on local streets; and
2. gives consideration to a phased in approach for possible implementation starting with City courts, elbow streets and cul-de-sacs windrows."
That 2022 ‘failed’ motion votes were 5 NO: Councillors Kerr, Giberson, Gray, Marks and Mayor Carter and 1 YES: Councillor Neal (I was not on that committee and therefore did not have a vote.)
In my opinion, me attempting at this time the same motion for City staff to investigate windrow clearing city-wide likely would not pass.
So I worked on a motion that I believed might help get some new steps underway. Monday’s Notice of Motion was about “reviewing” and “investigating” and reporting back to Committee on continuing to find ways for snow clearing improvements before the 2024 budget deliberations. The motion was not about adding $5M to $7M to the budget, but in addition to formulating a public survey mechanism and reviewing what adjustments could provide efficiencies, it was to investigate having at least one plow in the City with an articulating blade.
The senior staff I spoke with agreed it could help with the City’s 2000+ driveways that have windrows cleared under the Snow Clearing Assistance Program for Seniors and Residents with Disabilities. I told Councillor Nicholson that before I presented the motion.
After I read and explained the Notice of Motion, which occurred near the end of the meeting, Councillor Nicholson spoke and seemed to go to great lengths to slam me for making the motion, ascribing motives to me saying “it is one of those motions if you’re a politician and wanting to score some points then you make a motion like this”, claiming it was a back-patting political and token motion. He claimed ‘he is told” there are six Oshawa plows that could be adapted with an articulating blade. If there are, I say good to hear, but there has been no open public discussion on this topic. In fact, in my exchanges with staff when I asked for their recommendations on my motion, there was no mention of this and staff only made it clear that the City of Oshawa does not have this kind of road plowing equipment.
Where Oshawa does not have one such plow, Richmond Hill has 35.
Oshawa Operations staff indicated Oshawa has a total of 45,000 residential driveways for garbage pickup, and just over 2,000 Oshawa residential driveways are cleared under Oshawa’s Snow Clearing Assistance Program.
With the information on the City of Richmond Hill’s website and from the conversation and email correspondence I received from their works manager, Oshawa can learn a lot from the City of Richmond Hill’s windrow clearing program, which currently includes 44,000 residential driveways. They make a good comparison for cost for Oshawa. I gathered, based on the information that the Richmond Hill Works Manager provided, the cost of one plow with an articulating blade today would be around $200K.
https://youtu.be/Hhu-I8ltwoM