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Montreal Mayor Soraya Martinez Ferrada is cutting the city’s budget for replacing aging snow-removal equipment, despite admitting that the city is facing a “major crisis” of frequent breakdowns of snowplows, graders, salt spreaders and snowblowers.
“Twenty-five per cent of the equipment is currently unavailable,” Martinez Ferrada said in an interview with Radio-Canada Tuesday.
She gave the example of the Montréal-Nord borough, where all four of its salt spreaders are currently broken.
“The borough is forced to rent one spreader for its entire area, making it impossible to provide quality service,” Martinez Ferrada said.
City workers say the problem seems worse this winter than in previous years.
“We’re pushing the machines we have to the limits,” Alexandre Paris, a grader operator, told Radio-Canada.
“But a lot of machines fall apart or break down in the process,” Paris said.
Montreal Mayor Soraya Martinez Ferrada speaks to reporters at city hall Wednesday. (Radio-Canada)
The problem is citywide.
Out of the city’s fleet of 1,285 vehicles used for snow clearing and removal, 300 are currently out of the mix because of repairs or maintenance.
Sixty-six of the city’s 115 heavy-duty snowblowers are considered to be in bad condition.
WATCH | 25% of snow-removal fleet out of service:
Montreal’s intense winter has claimed a casualty: a quarter of the city’s snow-removal fleet
With the city already on its fifth snow-removal operation of the winter, the new administration found out that the vehicles it inherited may be in worse shape than expected.Pothole complaints doubled
This is Martinez Ferrada’s first winter as mayor, and it has come with challenges.
A fifth snow-removal operation is currently underway, and freeze-thaw cycles have meant an early and prolific pothole season.
The number of complaints about potholes in the city this winter has doubled compared to last winter.
“Not only does it seem that there are more of them, but they’re also getting deeper,” André Durocher with CAA Quebec told CBC in an interview Wednesday.
“We’re not the only North American city with those types of conditions, but it seems to be that something is wrong,” he said.
Despite acknowledging problems, Martinez Ferrada’s administration is cutting the budget for replacing aging equipment.
‘Strategic retreat,’ says mayor of cutting budget
The previous Projet Montréal administration had set aside $45 million over the next 10 years to replace equipment.
Martinez Ferrada’s administration has cut that by more than half, to $18 million.
“I call this a strategic retreat,” Martinez Ferrada said.
She said the previous administration centralized maintenance and repairs of snow-removal equipment, and that money set aside wasn’t always spent wisely by the central city.
“There really wasn’t any in-depth work done with all the boroughs to make sure what the investment was,” Martinez Ferrada said.
“I want to think about what we need, because it’s not clear what the boroughs need right now.”
She said her administration is consulting boroughs this winter, and that next winter should be better.
Martinez Ferrada is asking Montrealers to be patient and give the city time to get the equipment it needs.
“It’s not like going on Amazon and ordering it online, there’s a process involved. You have to reserve it, you have to get it, it’s going to take time,” she said.
Martinez Ferrada said her focus now is trying to get a handle on potholes before spring. She said two of the city’s four pothole-patching machines are currently out of commission.