County of Brant Council received a report regarding maintaining the Winter Sidewalk Maintenance Program during their Administration and Operations Committee meeting on Tuesday, October 15, 2024.
Like many municipalities, the responsibility to clear sidewalks during the winter months is shared between both residents and the County.
Residential home/building/business owners are responsible for clearing the sidewalk of snow and ice in front of, alongside and behind their properties within 24 hours of a winter event, while the County is responsible for clearing sidewalks fronting on municipally owned properties, as well as multi-use public trails.
Where the occupant of a building or the owner of a vacant lot fail to comply with the by-law, the municipality may clear away and remove any accumulation of snow or ice at the owner’s expense.
Because the County will be adding approximately 12 new locations for winter sidewalk clearing for the 2024/25 winter season, the report looked at if the County should make adjustments to the program.
While there were two new possible options, staff’s recommendation was to keep the status quo of the Winter Maintenance Program.
In regards to the homeowner’s responsibility to clear the sidewalks that line their property, Councillor David Miller asked Greg Devers, director of roads and fleet, what would happen if someone was away on vacation/business during a winter event.
“If somebody doesn’t clear their sidewalk because they’re in Florida and they get a notice but they’re not home to respond, if it’s not cleared do we still go through the process of getting a contractor [to clear the sidewalk] and put it [the charge to clear] on their taxes?” asked Miller.
Devers said that because it’s up to the homeowner to arrange an alternative method to clear the sidewalk while they’re away, if a complaint was made in such an event and By-Law Enforcement came back the next day to see the sidewalk was still not cleared, then yes, the homeowner would receive an invoice for the service.
“When homeowners or people go away, it’s up to them to make arrangements to have their sidewalk cleared when they’re gone,” said Devers. “Once the notice is given, they [By-Law Enforcement) will come back the next day and if it’s not cleared, then they’ll have the contractor come in to clean it and the property will be invoiced accordingly.”
Councillor John Bell then asked “can we step up our efforts to help support people, aging and infirm people, that can’t clear the sidewalks that are now obliged to clear the sidewalks?”
Devers said that this was something he was working on through the Snow Buddies programs.
“We have our Snow Buddies program here so it’s being looked at through that. It’s not a program run through the roads department, but as those requests come in, I’m working with that group to get them in contact with the residents that are making the request,” responded Devers.
Sharing similar concerns to Bell, Councillor Lukas Oakley then asked if it would be possible to share the Winter Maintenance Program report with the accessibility committee.
Devers said that yes, he would be sure to pass it along during the next accessibility meeting.
“I have been invited to some of those meetings to improve accessibility throughout the community, so what I’ll do is, once Council approves this at the end of the month, I will forward it to get it on their agenda, and then I can attend that meeting and answer any questions that they have,” he said.
The recommendation to keep the current status quo of the Winter Maintenance Program, was then carried unanimously.
Kimberly De Jong’s reporting is funded by the Canadian government through its Local Journalism Initiative.The funding allows her to report rural and agricultural stories from Blandford-Blenheim and Brant County. Reach her at kimberly.dejong@brantbeacon.ca.
