The Auditor General of Quebec City’s scathing findings on snow removal operations demonstrate that the municipality is experiencing significant deficiencies in its snow removal management.
Auditor General Daniel Runcourt released his 2023 annual report on Wednesday, which examines Quebec City’s snow removal operations and management. His findings were terrifying.
“I can’t say that the administration is doing a good job of clearing the snow because I don’t know,” said Mr. Rancourt said.
In fact, he notes, “the information used to estimate the rate of compliance with planned deadlines lacks reliability,” which harms communication to the public. There is a significant difference between the data provided by the field teams, responsible for verifying that operations comply with winter service policy, and the data reported to the tactical team.
For example, he notes that “according to information sent to the Strategic Committee, the deadline was respected in 2023 for 83% of scrapping operations.” But in fact, “this ratio is lower depending on the dates and time of work reference. Groups”: if we take into account the 13 departments that were removed, and if we rely on the latest end time of the activities, only 17% respect the deadline.
The data is entered manually and after several days, the verifier notes that some of it is sometimes missing. “There are no controls to ensure the accuracy of the data.”
Two weekend activities
VG, on the other hand, returned to weekend snow removal activities that caused a lot of buzz during the main events in February 2023, on February 10th and 17th. He notes that “the city does not have an operational analysis or an economic analysis to quantify the impacts of performing clearing operations on weekends” and that “the triggering of snow removal on Friday, February 17 had an impact on the entire system.” Work.
The district directorate “does not have all the necessary information and analytics to ensure smooth running of operations. In other words, in such an environment, it is difficult to know whether the human and material resources will be adequate and whether the leisure time needs of the drivers can be respected.
We do not have an analysis of the additional costs of weekend activities.
In 2022, snow removal awarded to the private sector, which accounts for 45% of the areas to be cleared, will cost more ($49.3 million) than the 55% of work done locally ($37.3 million), VG asserts.
Snow deposit
VG also points out that ice warehouses have drawbacks. “Improvements are necessary so that environmental requirements are respected” and in some of them, exceed the maximum amount of snow that can be stored. It is also difficult to accurately measure the amount of icing salts. “Most glaciers have higher than normal chloride concentrations in meltwater, and the use of road salts is also a factor.”
The city only calibrates its diffusion equipment once at the beginning of winter, although it is recommended to do so at least twice a winter.
The mayor of Quebec, Bruno Marchand, the city’s chief executive, Luc Monty, and director of local services, Stéphane Bouguet, responded to the media on the auditor general’s report.
Stevens LeBlanc/Journal de Quebec
The person in charge of the file, Pierre-Luc Lachance, was notably absent on Wednesday. It was the mayor of Quebec, Bruno Marchand, who chose to “take the heat” on the report and Mr. He reiterated his faith in Lachance. He admits that exercise “isn’t always fun.” He believes the advent of telemetry, promised since 2014 but starting to be implemented in 2025, will solve part of the problem of rigorous data collection.
“We humbly and earnestly welcome suggestions,” said Mr. Marchant said. “I want all recommendations to be followed”, a clear communication to the citizen.
The official opposition and the second opposition are demanding the file be removed from Pierre-Luc Lachance’s hands. For Claude Villeneuve of the official opposition, the statement was “excessive”. “Our ice removal service is visible in the middle of the ocean. If we were told this morning that we were going to implement the fax, that would already be a technological invention. According to him, Pierre-Luc Lachance is “not the person for the task of improving snow removal in the city.”
Patrick Paquet, the unelected leader of the second opposition party, said, “The mayor is reducing snow removal problems and the citizens deserve better management. We are facing two administrations that have dragged on since 2013. Nothing has been done on telemetry. We need to change the snow removal manager. Bruno Marchant may have protected him for two years, but that’s enough.
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