New BrunswickAfter last winter’s struggles to meet sidewalk clearing standards, the city is adding new sidewalk plows to replace some aging equipment, reallocating resources and launching an audit to improve snow management this season.City to give more attention to sidewalk plowing and will audit resources all winterNipun Tiwari · CBC News · Posted: Nov 04, 2025 10:33 AM EST | Last Updated: 3 hours agoListen to this articleEstimated 5 minutesPublic works director Tim O’Reilly presented the winter strategy to councillors Monday night. (Nipun Tiwari/CBC)Saint John is preparing for winter with a plan that will increase the focus on sidewalk plowing and adjust how resources are used to reduce the problems crews encountered last year.City staff brought its winter management plan to council Monday night.Six storms hit the city last winter, according to a staff report submitted to council.”For five of the six storms last winter, we only achieved our service standards on 75 per cent or less of our sidewalks,” Tim O’Reilly, the public works director, told council.Some of those storms left city sidewalks caked in ice and snow for days and in some places weeks, which made getting around hard for pedestrians. These included a storm Christmas Eve and one in February, which brought ice pellets as well. “This performance was not acceptable to the community, and frankly, it wasn’t acceptable to us either,” O’Reilly said. “A strong desire to do better inspired us to invest more in finding improvements going into this coming winter.”Six winter storms hit Saint John last year, and left some sidewalks difficult to use for days and sometimes weeks, staff told council. (City of Saint John)In March, the problem, in large part, came down to the availability of sidewalk plows, O’Reilly said. Nine of the city’s 11 sidewalk plows are at least nine years old, and only one plow has been replaced in the last five years. The expected lifespan of the vehicles is about 12 years. This resulted in only 50 to 60 per cent of these sidewalk plows, and sometimes as few as 25 per cent, being available during the past season’s difficult weather, the staff report said.Watching winter resources For the coming season, O’Reilly said, the city is bringing three new sidewalk plows into its fleet to replace three older plows. O’Reilly’s department will keep two of the older sidewalk plows for some “defined plow routes,” where additional equipment might be needed.The city already does this with its 39 street plows, four of which the city kept over the years as they aged out of regular use. “They’re old plows, but might as well hang on to a couple of them when the rainy days come,” O’Reilly said.The city will also be using larger street plows — which have “wings” to plow from their sides — for some sidewalks as well. O’Reilly addressed asked council in March for a larger budget for snow management. Councillors made no commitment to raising the snow-clearing budget at the time. Third party brought in for auditBut council has approved an audit of the city’s winter management plan throughout the season. The review will be done by accounting and consulting firm KPMG and the city’s internal audit service. Coun. Gary Sullivan, also chair of the city’s finance committee, said the consulting group has several years of experience reviewing municipal winter operations. “Upon approval of this audit, the team will get to work immediately and plan to work throughout the winter season with our transportation and public works department to determine ways to improve our service delivery,” Sullivan said.A final report from the audit is expected next spring.Staff ask residents’ co-operationDespite improvements to the city’s response plan for winter, O’Reilly said a missing resource can cause delays in how quickly streets or sidewalks are plowed.”Even with the improvements we plan for this winter, we’re going to be far from fully resourced to consistently have equipment and people for our 46 street and sidewalk routes,” he said. The city has a fixed number of plows and operators, and work sometimes must be distributed among remaining crews if, for example, someone can’t work because of illness or injury or if a plow breaks down.City hall staff ask residents to check the City of Saint John’s website this winter for the latest on parking bans. Proposed higher fines for people violating temporary bans will be brought before council. (City of Saint John)The availability of equipment can depend on the age and current service condition of a vehicle, combined with the unpredictability of the weather.City staff and O’Reilly are asking residents to stay updated through the City of Saint John website about parking bans on some streets. Vehicles parked on streets during parking bans can created roadblocks last season. O’Reilly said recommendations about increased fines for violations of temporary bans will be coming before council over the coming weeks.“The motivation with these changes is to increase compliance so people do not park on the street, so we can do our job.”He said his department will also be turning to its own enforcement staff to get vehicles towed instead of relying on police.Staff also ask residents to keep cleared snow from driveways or other areas off streets and sidewalks. ABOUT THE AUTHORNipun Tiwari is a reporter assigned to community engagement and based in Saint John, New Brunswick. He can be reached at nipun.tiwari@cbc.ca.
Saint John beefs up battle plan for snow-clearing after difficult winter last year
