What's Happening in Calgary, AB…

In the midst of another typically cold and snowy Calgary winter, some heartwarming news has recently been revealed by bylaw officials. This concerns the number of residents in the city who are responding quickly and compliantly in removing potentially hazardous snow from the sidewalk areas outside their houses.

Laws require residents in the city to clear their sidewalks within 24 hours of snowfall or face footing the bill of a cleanup contractor. Depending on the amount of work required from the contractor – a process that costs the resident an already frosty $210 – can soon lead to an unwelcome avalanche of costs.

Encouragingly, officials say that such action has only been necessary in 8.5% of cases so far this winter – a notable plummet from the 20% average of the last three winters. Sue Wall, the city’s bylaw operations coordinator, could not give a clear reason for this but suggested that residents are beginning to share the city’s vision of keeping sidewalks safe and clean, before adding that further improvement could still be made. An awareness campaign via poster printing and flyer printing could only help continue the current level of progress.

No doubt as a consequence of this improved neighborly and conscientious attitude, health and safety officials like Canada Post’s Vaden Hillier have noticed significantly fewer injuries caused by slips and falls this winter.

Snowy pathways have been shown to be one of the main bugbears of Canadians in recent years, with the winter of 2010/11 seeing 12,500 calls to 311 complaining of neighbors not doing their bit to keep sidewalks slip-free.