Winter Walking and Cycling

[jeffster]

I think one of the issues is that we haven't had a tough winter in a number of years, and with the way budgets are made, if you don't use it, you lose it. Maybe this is why so many areas remain snow covered.

Yet another example of systemic incompetence, if true. Only a total incompetent would make the snow clearing budget work that way.

It’s questionable everywhere but clearly incorrect for snow clearing.

That being said, I’m not sure that’s how the snow clearing budget works. Does anybody know specifically what the process is? I can imagine a city council foolishly trimming the snow budget after a few years of using it less when obviously they should be saving up so that a snowy winter doesn’t blow out the rest of the budget but instead just causes them to use up the accumulated surplus in the snow budget. Also the snow budget year should span an entire winter season regardless of what fiscal year the rest of the budget uses.

This is a case where real world considerations trump any accounting principles that accounting experts might know which I don’t know.

It's rules set out by governments, IIRC. Government as in The Province of Ontario, and it was either from the Harris years or the McWynne years, I can't remember.

Regular snow clearing should have the same budget every year, but if you have 5 years of going under budget, then the budget might change.

As for bus stops, it's either budget related or simply staff aren't verifying that work is being completed.