City will stick with sweeping budget

By Lethbridge Herald on May 24, 2025.

Al Beeber
Lethbridge Herald

The Governance Standing Policy Committee of Lethbridge city council this week unanimously voted to maintain the current level of the street sweeping  program that was approved in 2020.

The SPC heard a presentation on the sweeping program from Transportation general manager Darwin Juell. His review discussed budget reduction initiatives by previous council in December of 2020, which resulted in an 18 per cent budget reduction for the sweeping  service starting in 2021.

As part of the budget reduction, the number of sweepers utilized was dropped to five in 2021 from seven. There was also a reduction in summer day sweeping services and both door hangers for spring sweeping and windshield wiper notifications were eliminated. The number of  passes of sweeps on streets were also optimized.

In June of 2022, the present council directed administration to monitor the service levels from the 2020 budget cut and report back to an SPC this spring about the impact. The City’s goal was to maintain similar service levels as those prior to the budget cut. The total budget in 2019 for sweeping services was just over $1.5 million while in 2024, it amounted to $1,368,070.

Several measures were implemented to meet the lower budget, which had the potential of the spring sweeping program not being completed at all or completed at a lower standard of quality. And in fact, in 2021  sweeping wasn’t finished in the the southside neighbourhoods of Tudor Estates, Chinook Heights, Scenic Heights and Park Royal.

Juell’s report to the SPC stated that the city has 575 kilometres of paved roads. All arterial roads, collector roads and local roads are cleared in the sweeping program.

The average cost in the past four years for residential and night-time spring sweeping is $1,180,000, summer night sweeping costs $80,000 on  average annually and fall sweeping in heavily treed areas to remove  leaves that could clog catch basins has an annual average cost of $110,000.

Juell’s report notes that the growth of the road network, along with inflation, have put pressures on the sweeping budget.

The SPC also unanimously voted to recommend that council approve for the 2025-26 winter season a continuation of snow plowing to the right with a subscription-based windrow assistance service on a trial basis.

A report by Juliane Ruck, the City’s Transportation Operations  manager, noted that a snow route declaration was made only once during the past winter. It also states that in 2024, the snow and ice control budget of $3.88  million saw a $500,000 deficit due to three significant snow events over the past two seasons, one of which saw total accumulation of more than 40 centimetres.

The report says snow plowing is considerably cheaper than removal, with plowing in residential areas costing $260 per kilometre while removal costs $6,800 per kilometre. The City uses 12 plows with 19 operators to handle snow clearing efforts.

Major roadways that provide access to different areas of the city and highways are considered Priority 1 and are cleared 24 hours after a snowfall ends. The city has 131 kilometres of Priority 1 roadways.

The 45 kms of Priority 2 roadways – which provide access to public  buildings and neighbourhoods – are cleared 48 hours after snow ends.

The 29 kms of Priority 3 roadways are cleared 72 hours after the end of a snow event. These are roads that “provide industrial and business access around the city,” said the presentation.

The 81 kms of snow routes, which are declared after or during snow  events, are cleared 24 to 72 hours after snowfall ends.

Ruck told the committee that people want the clearing done more quickly but as more people sign up for the service, that will stretch resources.