Aurora residents support tax hike to clear windrows left by plows: poll
It would cost town $370,000 per year to provide bottom of driveway clearing service

YorkRegion.com
April 18, 2018
Teresa Latchford

Many Aurora residents admit they would pay for the town to remove windrows at the end of their driveways.

With much of Ontario, including Aurora, being pelted with ice and snow residents were forced to break out the shovels mid-April to clear their driveways just to have a snow plow drive by and leave a large heaping pile of the white stuff at the end of the clean driveway.

Photos surfacing on social media showed some of these windrows were equivalent to the height of a car’s trunk, filled with ice chunks or completely solid and residents struggling to walk over them to get to their houses, never mind getting the vehicle over it.

“I keep getting complaints from residents and I know the town was dealing with a lot of calls,” Aurora Coun. John Abel said. “These windrows created by the snow plows are very difficult for people to deal with.”

Abel drove around the neighbourhood a day after the ice storm and witnessed cars parked on the road or stuck at the end of driveways due to the windrows. He also noticed crossing guards assisting schoolchildren over banks around the school zones.

“I know I’ve never lifted anything like it with a shovel in my life,” he said. “I have approached town staff about including a windrow service discussion when council reviews its winter maintenance report this spring."

“We’ve talked about it every term but when it comes to budgeting for it, we seem to back off,” Abel added. “I think it’s worth us considering.”

It made fellow Coun. Tom Mrakas take to Facebook to informally poll residents.

“Would you be in favour of a modest increase in the winter maintenance budget so that the town would be able to provide windrow clearing?” he asked in the post.

Of the 733 people who voted, 80 per cent said they would be willing to pay for the town to clear the end of their driveway following the snow plow passing and 20 per cent said they wouldn’t.

In the comments, some residents were in full support while others said they would be happy if their road got plowed same day. Others questioned the definition of a “modest” tax increase and what it would cost to purchase equipment and additional staff that would be needed to establish the program.

Coun. Harold Kim pointed out that many municipalities do offer the service to their residents but it isn’t cheap, estimating it would cost the town about $370,000 per year tacked onto the winter maintenance budget. This would be about a 1 per cent tax increase, he added.

The City of Vaughan pays $4 million annually for windrow clearing.

The City of Markham offers the program at a cost of $75 per household. The city is currently exploring a rebate program to allow residents to hire someone and be reimbursed rather than managing the program themselves.

Kim believes it could be done with some further management to current budgets.