Plateau-Mont-Royal can't afford to remove snow, Luc Ferrandez says
Ice and snow plowed from streets and sidewalks remain piled high in Plateau borough
People living in the Plateau-Mont-Royal borough may have to tough out the icy roads and sidewalks a little while longer.
Borough mayor Luc Ferrandez said there wasn’t enough money in the budget to remove it, and that residents have one person to blame for it: Montreal mayor Denis Coderre.
"The mayor cut the Plateau-Mont-Royal’s snow-removal budget," Ferrandez said of Denis Coderre.
He said the lack of snow removal was strictly a matter of money, and that he agreed with residents complaining about the mess the snow and ice have left.
The Plateau-Mont-Royal borough is the only one of 19 on the island that has not yet removed the snow after plowing sidewalks and streets.
Ferrandez said the reason is that the Plateau faces budget constraints other boroughs don’t.
Earlier this week, Coderre responded to an audit performed on Montreal’s poor snow-clearing performance during a week in early January marked by snow, rain and freezing rain.
He attributed a large part of the problem to the fact that each borough is responsible for its own snow clearing, and said that it would probably be better if there was one central policy.
"Currently, it’s borough by borough. That doesn’t remove the desire to act, but the left hand doesn’t know what the right hand is doing," Coderre said.