After unplowed streets slowed paramedics from getting to a 71-year-old woman, council voted to support cutting plow times in half yesterday.
Priority 2 streets don’t have to be plowed for 24 hours.
Purcell’s Cove-Armdale Coun. Linda Mosher wants the city to always have Priority 1 deadline of 12 hours. Unplowed streets delayed paramedics from getting to a resident in her district who was having a health emergency.
Then, when paramedics brought her home hours later they had to carry her through a neighbour’s yard because the road still was not plowed.
“This is a serious safety issue. This resident could have died, it could be fatal,” said Mosher.
Yesterday’s vote doesn’t make the new deadlines law. Staff will come back with a report on how much it will cost and that will be debated at budget time for next winter. However, other parts of the report can be enacted immediately, such as creating stiffer penalties for snow removal contractors who don’t meet their targets.
