Snow removal boosted in Charlottetown budget

The snow removal budget was increased for the coming winter at Monday night's city council meeting in Charlottetown.

Coun. Terry Bernard, chair of the public works committee, put forward a motion to increase the budget by $500,000 for next year to buy some new equipment.

• Charlottetown breaks snowfall record

Bernard said the record snowfall of this past season has caused a lot of wear and tear to machinery and the fleet needs to be updated. The money will go towards a new loader and two new sidewalk plows, which will replace some older models.

"Two of our sidewalk plows are getting pretty old, they're late 90s models, so they have a tendency in the heavy-going to break down," said Bernard.

"The whole idea is to improve efficiencies and at some point you've always got to be improving your equipment."

Bernard said the city will keep the two 90s model sidewalk plows to fill in if any of the others need repairs next winter.

• View a chart of Charlottetown's record-breaking snowfall
• Watch a time-lapse video of the Charlottetown snow melt