Why Calgary may need to get tougher on shovelling sidewalks

Between the freeze and the chinook, there's a whole lot of treacherous footing that Calgary pedestrians must endure every winter.

Coun.Druh Farrell spoke to Calgary Eyeopener host David Gray about her notice of motionto city council seeking solutions to create cleaner city sidewalks in winter.

Q: What are the current rules around clearing sidewalks?

A:The sidewalk in front of your own property it's your responsibility to clear. You have 24 hours to clear. If there's a complaint, then a bylaw officer goes out andgives you another 24 hours in order to clear [it].

So the time lapse as to when it's reported, when there's a complaint, and when the snow gets cleared whether it's by the city andcharged back or the property owner or tenantcan be quite some time.

The city itself, though, has different rules for its own property, and that's where the focus is.I've got a lot of detail in my notice of motion. It's a complicated issue. But the start [of the conversation] is, let's have the city do better for the property we're responsible for.

Q: What needs to change?

A:With snow clearing [bylaws], there are no [actual] fines. What happens is, it's oftenthe same repeat offenders every year, where there are individuals who simply won't shovel their sidewalk. They wait for the chinook to melt it away.The city will [then] have to come out. There's quite a delay, and it requires a bylaw officer visiting more than once, so there' a cost associated with that.

Same people, year after year

The city will then hire a company to go clear [the sidewalk]. And then the property owner gets a bill. But the bill is simply for the labour of clearing. It's not for the work of the bylaw officer. So there's no cost recovery and there's no fine.

And we have, year after year, the same people who don't clear the sidewalk, and rely on the city to do it. In some cases,it's an apartment buildingand it's simply cheaper for the city to do it becausethey don't get caught every time.

We don't have clear rule for clearing of wheelchair ramps, or the no-man's land sidewalk crossings of lane ways.

Q: What do you suggest?

A:It's a clunky process to call 311, so let's create a mobile app to report.Let's have better co-ordination between [city] departments, becausethere is more that we can do if we co-operate between departments.

Q: Do any other councillors support you?

A: We never know until the vote is cast, but this is a perennial issue. I don't know why we haven't solved it. We continue to throw money at clearing our roads, but the injuries are happening withpedestrians. Our slip and fallsand injury-related slips are higher than any other province next to Saskatchewan, and it's clear why we spend less.

Q: What about the argument that we simply have more freeze-and-thaw cycles in Calgary?

A:Certainly that doesn't help. When you have thawing, and you had a big snow like we had in DecemberandJanuary, then you'll have ice seeping underneath the snow. What we need is people to take responsibility and be a good neighbour and that includes the city for our own property. I've listed a whole number of ways we can improve. Other cities manage to do this.I'm not sure why we can't. We continue to underfund pedestrian infrastructure in our city, although we declare that it's a priority. Let's do better.

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With files from the Calgary Eyeopener