The city of Edmonton has been flooded with 5,617 snow- and ice-on-walk complaints to date, nearly 21 times the amount of pothole claims in 2008.
The influx of complaints is result of fluctuating temperatures, as well as rain causing sheets of ice to form on city walkways.
“The No. 1 thing is slip and falls; we’re trying to get that dealt with and make sure that we’re limiting the number that are going on,” said Mike Martin, snow enforcement supervisor.
So far this season, 300 tickets have been handed out by municipal enforcement officers.
A sales associate in the seasonal department at the Rona Home Centre in Spruce Grove said that the store has run out of bags of ice-melting salt and wouldn’t be getting any more in until Monday.
“We had an awful lot of inventory; we only ran out of the jugs a couple of days ago,” he said. “With the freezing rains and that, we ran out prematurely.”
The city received 262 pothole claims in 2008.
