After last year’s winter that saw snow removal budgets exceeded, questions are already being asked on whether Halifax will be prepared for the season ahead.
Workers at the Municipal Fleet Shop in Dartmouth are still fixing equipment that broke down last year.
Fleet supervisor Kim Fader says repairs are about a week behind schedule. He says that mean long days are ahead to make sure they’re more prepared this time around.
“All hands on deck right now (to) get ‘er taken of,” he said.
The city’s call centre fielded nearly 17,000 snow-related inquiries and complaints last year. Six thousand others called about other services affected by the snow.
This year, staff will shift locations to increase capacity at the call centre. There will also be a harder crackdown on snow-related parking bans.
“We've already taken some action to secure additional equipment, including additional graders and other heavy equipment to have on hand in case we have severe winter conditions like we did last season,” said Jennifer Stairs, spokesperson for the city.
But city councillor Linda Mosher thinks there’s more work to be done.
“We don't have enough resources externally and internally to deal with rapid freezes,” she said.
The city's also hunting for a new superintendent of winter operations after Darren Natolino resigned last week.
Mayor Mike Savage admits it was a big loss, but not the end of the world.
“We’ll miss Darren, but our staff are very confident that one person can be replace, and we’ll manage that,” said Savage.
With files from CTV Atlantic’s Bruce Frisko.
