Edmontonians frustrated over snow removal, city removing tows

Some residents in northeast Edmonton say they’re frustrated with snow removal on their residential streets.

Looking through one neighbourhood, a large windrow could be seen where a vehicle sat unmoved during the parking ban. The snow piles are causing frustration for those with mobility issues. 

“This year, I made sure I kept it clear along the side of my curb here for when the kids come to visit, and now. I wake up in the morning, and I see this, and I had to clean up my driveway too; it wasn’t a big windrow, but it was a mess,” said Rod Reimer, an Edmontonian.

Reimer woke up Tuesday to their residential streets plowed, but large windrows of snow covering curbs and, in some cases, driveways. Reimer told CityNews he thinks snow crews could have done a better job of clearing packed snow as well. 

“They could have dropped the bucket. This is at least six inches deep. They could have knocked her down to two. Like, now when this starts to melt, my civic is going to get stuck here, and that just makes more work for me,” Reimer explained.

Some people CityNews spoke to in the McLeod neighbourhood on Tuesday afternoon say large piles of snow left in front of their homes have made it difficult to get around during the morning commute.

“I have two vehicles that I need parked out front. I’ve got injuries that preclude me from walking great distances. I figured okay, if it’s going to be gone over night, fine, not a big issue, but seeing it there first thing this morning, I’m thinking wow!” said Roy, an Edmontonian.

While others are telling CityNews they completely missed the memo on the phase two parking ban, having to dig their vehicles out of the snow because the city did not budget for tows this year.

“Took me the whole morning, missed school just to shovel the snow. I had to drive through it. I didn’t see any tickets on the window; snow just covered my entire car,” said Dieudonne M’Pova, an Edmontonian.

Mayor Andrew Knack spoke to the media Tuesday morning for the first time since returning from his trade trip to Edmonton’s sister city, Harbin, China.

He acknowledged frustrations around snow, explaining that city crews will only remove windrows blocking driveways if they are greater than 30cm, but adds that snow clearing will be a key part of next year’s city budget deliberations.

“You’ll remember as a councillor, I raised this numerous times about the lack of towing and it’s incredibly infuriating to see folks leaving their cars on the street when there’s ample notification. You can get a text messages, emails, I’ve been getting both already. But I think we need to hold those folks accountable and get those cars of the street,” Mayor Knack explained.

Those in charge of snow removal with the City of Edmonton told CityNews through an email that windrow cleanup locations will be prioritized by 311 calls, but says if too many vehicles are left on a single street, the cleaning may be rescheduled or skipped. 

The union representing snow-clearing crews shared a video of just that. Saying the number of vehicles left during the parking ban is making their jobs difficult.

“The way I feel now, they want it on the road? I’ll take all this and just throw it on the road from now on,” said Reimer.