As someone born and raised in -40-degree winters in Montreal, and who worked my first newspaper job in the frozen north of Alberta, you would think I’d have a bit of a tolerance for snow.
That’s a big and emphatic “nope.”
I friggin’ hate the stuff. It’s cool when you’re a kid, and the sheer joy and fun of tubing or building snowmen or snow forts outweighs the cold and wet. My eight-year-old boy can stay outside for hours playing in the snow with his neighbourhood buddies, and hates to have to come back inside. For me, unless I’m snowboarding, no bloody thanks.
That’s one of the things I love about living in Squamish. For the most part, winters don’t start until late December, and snow usually is washed away within a week or two due to higher temps and our infamous west coast rain. That’s pretty much how this winter has been playing out.
However, like a lot of Squamish folks, I was a bit overwhelmed with the recent three-day dump of snow, nonetheless, and how the streets and sidewalks were a complete disaster. Some were complaining about how inadequate the plowing was in the district and questioned why more resources weren’t put in place to clear the snow faster.
But, consider how often we actually need plow services here in Squamish, and the cost to keep the plows on-call. In a normal year, we get what? Maybe four or five big dumps that stay for a few days? So, realistically Squamish shouldn’t need a vast budget for snow-clearing, except of course for those rare occasions like last year, when we seemed to get Montreal’s winter for the season. Now that was a true “snowmageddon” in my opinion.
I think part of the reason people get so hot under the collar when the roads are less than perfectly plowed here, is because many of us who live in Squamish once hailed from the east, in places like Montreal and Toronto, where they had huge budgets for snow clearing, and crews worked almost 24/7 during the hard winter months to keep the streets and sidewalks perpetually cleared.
Economically, we just can’t have the same snow removal processes as in a place that gets that much more snow. And look, we are going to get more snow before this winter is out, so to survive any Squamish snowmaggedon, maybe we need to prioritize the plowing. Make a better plan and prioritize things like disabled parking stalls in lots, sidewalks near schools and seniors residences, and particularly the downtown quarter that sees so much traffic.
But, in the end, when the snow flies the plow guys get as overwhelmed as we do, so we should take a moment to think about what they are up against, appreciate that they’re out there, and let them get the job done.
