If there’s one thing that we can all agree on, it’s that this city’s snow removal is not the best in Canada. 

After most storms, I’m fairly certain an eager group of pimply faced teens could clear routes like The Deerfoot and Memorial Drive faster than our city crews.  So when city hall announces a strategy, ANY strategy, to improve our roads when Old Man Winter pays us a visit, you’d think Calgarians would be happy, right?

Well, if the reaction to the city’s newest plan to make it illegal to park along more than 1,000 kilometres of Calgary roadways if it snows more than five centimetres is any indication, short of bringing in city-sized heaters, Calgarians will never be happy. 

Some aldermen, and many urbanites have taken to the media and message boards to air their grievances about potentially having to park three or four blocks away from their apartments, should a storm force them to move their cars.  

While I get that it would be convenient to park your car in front of your house, it’s definitely a rarity to be able to do so in any other major Canadian city, even in the heat of July. Plus, with a noted exception to senior citizens, I think we could all use the extra exercise.  Of course, as someone who lives on the snow-route, my excitement of the new law can also be perceived as selfishness.

After most snowstorms, I usually end up abandoning my car until the next Chinook is able to melt the snow that has buried it. By forcing me to move my vehicle, the city is also essentially promising to plow my parking spot for me. And since I’ve already lived in Calgary for six years without buying a shovel, I’ll certainly take the free help.

However, the city’s plan is not perfect. Even Calgary’s most talented meteorologists have a hard time predicting our erratic weather.  A clear, sunny day can quickly change and dump a few centimetres of snow, so our ever-changing weather will be make defending your inevitable ticket a lot easier. 

Bringing me back to my comment about those energetic, eager – albeit pimply-faced – teenagers:

do our city crews really need 72 hours to clean up five centimetres of snow? Maybe it’s because I’m from the Maritimes, where storms are cleaned up faster than you can say the Rankin Family, but perhaps a shorter timeline will force more efficient cleanups.

I mean, it’s not like they’re building the Peace Bridge.