Universal Snow Clearing

Universal Sidewalk Snow Clearing

Getting around our city in the winter sucks. After even light snow, walking to work or running errands can feel like an expedition through the Arctic. In Waterloo, after you walk to the grocery store you have to wring out your socks. This situation is even worse for our disabled, elderly neighbors, and parents with strollers, who struggle with an inaccessible city at the best of times and whose movements are severely hampered in the winter. 

In other cities it is not like this. Toronto, Barrie, Mississauga, Hamilton, and more all clear their sidewalks, so why can’t Waterloo?

We can and here's how. Through bringing in several Southwestern Ontario-made MT7 Municipal Sidewalk Tractors, with their necessary attachments, and employing the people of Waterloo to drive them, we can clear our sidewalks the same way these other cities do. The city already owns several of these tractors. When a snow event puts snow on the ground, the city would send out these tractors to clear the sidewalks. The sidewalks would be cleared in order of priority. The priority streets would be decided upon based on extensive public consultation; the city would clear the sidewalks that residents deem most important first. The city would, however, get to all streets in time.

The Financial Plan

These tractors are multifunctional, so we will become efficient, puting them to work serving our city all year long, maintaining our city and helping create a beautiful city worth living in and exploring.

Costs of purchasing the tractors and employing the drivers will be balanced with increased revenue from our other great policies, buying in bulk to reduce per-unit costs, cuts to unnecessary spending where appropriate, and most importantly, through savings created from bringing snow clearing and other services in-house as opposed to being contracted away.

Waterloo must learn lessons from governments and businesses across the globe, throwing money at outsourcing means continuously increasing costs and profit-motives. We will instead build an active city that will tackle these problems directly, bring work in-house and become more efficient over time so our city can do more for its people.

Windrow Snow Clearing

We also commit to bringing in windrow snow clearing: clearing the snow that blocks the end of your driveway every winter. Instead of the snow getting dumped on your driveway minutes after having cleared it, it will be cleared off alongside the roads. While learning from existing models in Ontario and abroad, work will be done to create a made-in-Waterloo fiscally sustainable windrow policy. I commit to taking on that work wholeheartedly alongside city staff.

Life in Waterloo doesn’t have to end every winter. We are a Canadian city, we face the same Canadian problems every year. It is time for our government to understand that and for our city to take action. We are blessed to live in a great city, let's make sure we can enjoy it all year long.