A Saturday morning, I am dressed in my most comfortable flannel jammies, prepared to waste away the day with some much needed R & R. But to my distress, a roaring ruckus arises from a snow plow. My annoyance escalates as it has taken nearly two weeks for the snow to be fully plowed in the community of Varsity, a neighbourhood among many unsatisfied with the job of Calgary’s snow removal.
The city states that snow removal crews are overwhelmed due to the massive amounts of snowfall received in December (CTV News). However, the civilians in Calgary continue to express their disapproval. In a recent poll on CBC, 53.2% (753 votes) of the voters say that they struggle to drive on roads when asked how well the city has done clearing the snow. It is apparent that Calgarians are not impressed with the city’s job on snow removal.
Snow removal efforts in Calgary have been compared to our northern neighbor, Edmonton. Edmonton and Calgary do not experience a distinctive disparity in the amount of snowfall received—Calgary, in fact receives more snowfall than Edmonton by a few centimetres (Metro)—yet, Edmonton has a snow removal budget of $50.4 million compared to Calgary’s budget of $34 million (Metro). Sure, Calgary may have multitudes of sources to report regions to clear snow on Twitter, Facebook and the city’s hotline (3-1-1), but reporting becomes insignificant attempts, when there are no resources to satisfy the needs of Calgarians.
With the first month of 2014 over and the wrath of Calgary’s winter just beginning, let us all hope that all this snow can be removed before all of us express our exasperation upon the snow blowers and snow plows. On second thought, lets just pray that there are snow blowers and snow plows outside our doors, roaring away.