Our first significant snowfall this year put the city's new strategy for snow removal, in cooperation with the province, to the test. Councillor Terrie Porter explains the Saskatchewan Avenue renewal project on the west end required some special attention for that initial trek into a snowstorm with city and provincial plows, and all went quite well.

"The province and the city workers worked really well as a team," explains Porter. "They did an awesome job and then a quick cleanup. We had a lot of positive feedback from the community, as well as a lot of great positive feedback on social media, so council was very happy with that. One of our big things we wanted to make sure was that the snow clearing ran well this year."

She notes it was the year to try this out, and it worked. Porter says the priority routes were done quite quickly.  

Communication is required between the city and province when a storm of this magnitude occurs, seeing as the province deals with a few streets at the same time that city plows are out taking care of the majority of the roadways. Porter says they obviously came up with a really good game plan this year for the first time that the Saskatchewan Avenue renewal is pretty well in place, resulting in a very positive outcome.

She says special attention was given to the roundabouts leaving the town on the west and the streets that meet the Avenue where you can't turn left or right.

"Some of it's not finished yet, so we just didn't want people driving into the wrong side of the lane," continues Porter. "From 20th St. to about 14th St. 13th -- that's not done yet."

Porter extends her appreciation to the Department of Operations and the province, adding she can't say enough good things about them.

"We're just hoping that this is the end of the snow, and it was a good trial year for us," explains Porter. "There are probably a few things that they might change because there were some challenges. It's all about timing."