Saskatoon will fine people who repeatedly don't shovel snow

Starting next winter, if you repeatedly fail to shovel your sidewalk, expect to be hit with fines.The city has directed administration to draft a policy that cracks down on homeowners, tenants and businesses that refuse to shovel.

The fines will range from $100 to $2,000 depending on how many times you're caught not following the bylaw.

Jeff Jorgenson, the city's manager of transportation and utilities, said the city hasn't been fully enforcing the entire sidewalk clearing bylaw.

"For people that repeatedly do not clear their sidewalks, don't make any effort to clear their sidewalks, we'll be looking at introducing fines for those people, which was already in the bylaw but we just hadn't been utilizing it,"Jorgenson said.

Jorgenson saidpeople who don't shovel their sidewalk will still receive a warning first. Then if they still don't comply with the bylaw they'll be issued a $100 fine, followed by $200 for a second offence. Subsequent offences could result in fines of up to $1,000 for individuals and $2,000 for businesses. But he saidseveral policy details, including logistics and timing, still need to be worked out.

"Do we issue a ticket, for exampleon the second offence? Is it as soon as an offence comes to our attention? Or is it if they ignore the second notice? So we will be working out all those details,"Jorgenson said.

Some city councillors told the administration they want to see a plan how the city will comply with its own rules to clear its sidewalks quickly.

"The city has to get its act together first", said councillor Pat Lorje.

Jorgenson saidthe city has the capacity and the ability to do that.

"We heard loud and clear from councillors that if we're asking this of residents they want us to have those same expectations and demands of the city," Jorgenson said.

The new sidewalk clearing policy is expected to be in place for next winter.