City snow plowing may not get any better this winter: Winnipeg councillor

Coun. Janice Lukes says the city has yet to decide whether contractors will help crews clear snow. She says some longer-term improvements are being delayed by supply chain issues.

Residents frustrated with the City of Winnipeg’s pace of snow clearing want officials to prioritize active transportation routes.

At its next meeting, the city’s infrastructure renewal and public works committee will discuss whether private contractors can help city crews plow snow this season, Coun. Janice Lukes said.

“I’m optimistic that we’ll have some better cleaning for the rest of the season, but we may not. It may be the same standard that we’re seeing now,” Lukes, who chairs the committee, told Global News.

That’s partly because the city is waiting on 15 pieces of sidewalk plowing equipment, which won’t arrive until next year due to supply chain issues, she said.

In the meantime, Lukes urges residents to flag problem areas to 311.

“I’m looking to sit down and have a session with the director of public works and have some dialogue with the communities to see how the city can do better, even within the limited budget that we have.”

It was an uncleared bike lane on Westminster Avenue by Maryland Street that compelled a group of locals to scrape away the snow and ice themselves late Tuesday afternoon.

“We’ve made the same complaints to the City of Winnipeg on their website, the same reports of the same streets and what’s happening and what’s the problem, and just they haven’t gotten anybody out to fix it,” Daria Magnus-Walker said.