Confronted with a dazzling increase in snow removal costs, Quebec City updates its winter viability policy (PVH) by confirming its intention to have more recourse to blue passes For its operations.
The new PVH was discreetly published in a decision -making summary made public on Monday morning. The Executive Committee recommends that the municipal council to adopt this new policy there.
The city then confirmed the information, in the early afternoon, by a press release.
In November 2024, the merchant administration provided that its snow removal budget would exceed $ 100M in 2025, twice and a half times more than 2022.
The mayor of Quebec warned, at the same time, that the city should face “difficult and painful choices” in the coming years.
These observations were consecutive to a report in which the auditor general of Quebec pointed serious shortcomings in snow removal to Quebec City.
“Régie zones”
Taking note of this situation, Quebec City plans in particular to optimize its snow removal operations “in order to resume areas under management (internally) and thus better control costs”, it is explained.
Currently, 56% of snow removal operations are carried out under control – by blue passes – against 44% by the private sector.
According to our information, the proportion made to the internal could reach 60% in the new PVH.
Saying favorable to the principle of entrusting more tasks to the blue passes, Claude Villeneuve, head of the opposition at the Quebec City Hall, nevertheless said that “it is always difficult to have frank and open discussions on snow removal with this administration […] There is a lack of transparency ”.
Other measures
Also, the city wishes to make “politics [de déneigement] Simpler and focused on major orientations rather than inflexible operational standards and imposing a level of service not adapted to reality, ”it adds.
It is thus planned that “the operating procedures will rather be registered in an operational guide dedicated to the field operations teams which can be revised, if applicable, by the public works department according to the evolution of needs. This guide will be adapted to a simplified and accessible citizen version on the Quebec City website ”.
It is also said that the municipality will “revise its operations in order to control the volume of snow transported in [les] Snow deposits “,” simplify the snow removal policy “and provide” detailed information on snow removal operations by relying, in particular, on computer tools “.
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