City gets 18,000 snow complaints, plans major overhaul to clearing strategy

The city says they have heard resident complaints about snow removal, over 18,000 of them to the 311 information line since January 6th, and they plan to do something about it.

It's been two and a half weeks since the snow fell, and the city is admitting that only 20% of residential roads are cleared.

For many Edmonton residents, a solution can't come quickly enough. Some neighbourhoods have not seen a plow on their streets since the snow started to fall.

Adeline Debrinski lives in one of those neighbourhoods. She thinks the city needs to do more to get the roads cleared.

"Next budget they should allow more, and if they don't spend it they can save it for another time. It's unbelievable this year."

A meeting was held on Thursday to discuss the city's snow clearing schedule, and Mayor Mandel is expected to hold a press conference on Friday to update the situation.

Councillor Kerry Diotte says that receiving such a large amount of feedback in such a small amount of time is 'unprecedented'.

"That blows me away." he said on Thursday. "Obviously this is a huge deal and we have not done a good job."

In addition to an address from the mayor, citizens can expect and update to the city's snowclearing website. Neighbourhoods that are currently listed as TBA will be scheduled for clearing in the near future.

According to the city, 18,000 calls to 311 between January 6th and 26th is the most feedback they have ever had to the information line on a civic issue.

The city was not able to provide an estimate on Thursday about how much of this year's snow removal budget has been spent.

With files from Ryan Ellis