Residents Spend Too Much Time on 311, Let’s Just Fix the Snow & Ice Problems.
It’s clear to me that residents don’t want to spend their time having to contact 311 or their Councillor every time they see a problem with how snow and ice is being handled by the City.
They want to see their tax dollars at work handling the things they rely on the City to do. They should see those things being done properly the first time, without having to constantly report issues.
People start to feel like they’re not being heard when these problems don’t get fixed or they happen repeatedly.
After a number of concerns raised by residents were received by my office and I made consistent requests to Administration, there is now a review being done of the way that snow and ice are managed on neighbourhood roads, sidewalks and shared use pathways.
The City is asking for Edmontonians to share their views at a series of drop-in engagement sessions or through an online survey.
However, I’m not convinced that collecting feedback through these sessions or the survey is going to give us the full picture we need to understand the extent of the issues and what needs to change with snow and ice control in our city.
That’s why I asked in Council today to have the number of complaints to 311 reported back alongside the collection of information that Administration is receiving through their public engagement.
That way, we can compare the numbers to see if they have, in fact, captured a representative number of insights from Edmontonians. We can also start to ask more questions about what will be done to better align the services the City provides with the expectations of residents.
Inquiry made in Council on March 12, 2019
Can Administration please provide the following information:
1. The number of contacts 311 receives per year regarding snow and ice removal.
Please provide each contact count, even if it is a repeat contact about the same issue from the same person (if possible).
2. 311 contacts related to snow and ice broken down by subcategory (such as windrows, calcium chloride, sand use, requests for blading).
3. A comparison of how contacts to 311 about snow and ice compare in number to other major issues 311 receives contact about. (Does snow and ice elicit the highest number of contacts or does 311 receives a higher volume of contacts about other topics?)
