City to spend $12M on 'Snowtember' recovery in 2016

The city is planning to spend almost $12 millionthis year as the recovery continues from a devastating snowstorm in September 2014.

That event which has become known as Snowtemberdamaged thousands of trees across the city.

• MORE WEATHERNEWS |Dry spring forecast for many Canadian farmers, says Weather Network

Last year128,000 trees were assessed and pruned by city crews, and 7,500 new trees were planted.

NicoBernard with the parks departmentsays the pruning will continue, and they hope to plant 9,000 more trees this year.

• September snow tree damage will take decades to fix
• September snow:Calgariansshare their before and after pictures

"Through the municipal development plan, we want to see 20 per cent tree canopy cover in the city and we only have 8.4 per cent now so we still have a long ways to get there," Bernard said.

"With these kind of events and the flood event actually, we lost a lot of trees and it takes a long time to replenish that."

The city did ask the province for disaster assistance to help cover the cost of the recovery, but it refused.

The city is taking the $35million cost for the three-year recovery program from its reserve funds.