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This article was published 7/1/2015 (2081 days ago), so information in it may no longer be current.

The poor quality of snow clearing performed by private contractors over the weekend has prompted Mayor Brian Bowman to consider giving more work to unionized city staff.

Bowman said he was disappointed with the weekend snow clearing efforts, adding he believes more sand should have been put down to deal with slippery roads and more effort made to remove ruts.

Bowman said the quality of snow clearing has to improve and he’s willing to sit down with union leaders to consider giving city staff more of the workload.

"We’re always going to be looking at ways to improve the service," Bowman told reporters following Wednesday morning’s meeting of the executive policy committee.

Bowman’s comments were greeted enthusiastically by a senior official with the city’s largest union, CUPE 500.

Gord Delbridge, CUPE 500’s first vice-president, said the union is looking forward to putting its case before the mayor.

Private contractors handle 80 per cent of the street snow clearing and 50 per cent of sidewalk clearing, with civic crews responsible for the remainder.

"We’re happy with (Bowman) making those comments," Delbridge said, adding the union wants an opportunity show how the city can save money by doing more snow clearing with civic staff.

Bowman repeatedly praised the snow clearing work done by civic employees Wednesday morning but said he recognizes that giving city workers a greater share of the snow clearing work is a contentious issue, with his first priority being to ensure private contractors adhere to the terms of their snow clearing contracts.

"I haven’t waded into that very ideological question," Bowman said. "I will want to review a number of the policies that have to do with snow clearing... We shouldn’t close the doors, it’s about opening the doors and opening the ideas for ways that we can improve and I’m certainly open to that."

Chris Lorenc, president of the Manitoba Heavy Construction Association, said he wasn’t prepared to comment on Bowman’s criticisms but said city streets are cleared according to civic standards and the city has every right to enforce those standards in contracts with private operators.

Lorenc, a former city councillor, said a joint committee of the city, truckers and the association had been meeting to review those standards but the committee’s work was adjourned in advance of the civic election and they have not resumed

"We have been in discussions with the city just under a year to clarify the city’s standard-of-service expectations," Lorenc said.

Lorenc said he contacted Bowman’s office Wednesday to encourage him to get that joint committee restarted.

There was a great deal of criticism from the public and elected officials at the work done by private contractors last winter: over backlane plowing measures that created impenetrable windrows; ruts were allowed to accumulate, making driving hazardous and leading to an increase in rear-end collisions; some streets were never cleared as required because contractors didn’t have enough equipment to keep up with the snow plowing schedule.

CUPE 500, which represents about 4,600 civic employees including those that do snow clearing, has said civic workers can do a better snow clearing job more efficiently. The union has repeatedly requested city hall conduct a quality assessment, to compare the cost and quality of the work done by private contractors, but elected officials have refused.

Delbridge said private contractors have their own problems created by high staff turnover and contractual commitments to private property owners that compromise their ability to clear city streets.

Officially, elected officials are not allowed to dictate work practices to civic directors. City administrators are careful to point out that snow clearing is done according to policies approved by council, which determine when plowing begins, and which streets and sidewalks are cleared first.

Bowman would not say how the public works department responded to his criticism but city hall has been issuing daily reports on snow clearing efforts.

"Crews have been hard at work this week to scrape down areas where ruts have formed and to deal with problematic areas as a result of last weekend’s snowfall," stated a news release issued Wednesday morning.

Even though city hall issues daily releases on snowclearing efforts, Bowman said he wants more effort into letting the public know what work is being done and when.

"One of the key things with me is just communicating with Winnipeggers, letting them know where we’re at with snow clearing efforts and when they can expect the service to be done."

aldo.santin@freepress.mb.ca