City of Saskatoon says it's too expensive to plow residential roads after weekend snowfall

People living on Saskatoon's snow packed streets won't see plows coming their way anytime soon. The city says it's too expensive to activate an emergency snow plan that would see graders deployed to residential roads.

"We are taking a very fiscally responsible approach here," Goran Saric, City of Saskatoon director of roadways, told reporters Monday. 

"The plan is not to conduct a city-wide residential clearing at this time," Saric said, explaining the emergency plan could add $20 million to the city's $16-million annual snow removal budget.

Saric said all priority one streets were graded Monday and the city has moved to priority two and three streets, planning to have all priority streets plowed by Thursday. 

Plows will start tackling snow in business districts and school zones Wednesday night and spend several nights clearing those roads.

Saric said the city's roadways emergency response plan, which would see plows move to residential roads,  is triggered once snowfall levels hit 25 cm in a given storm.

While the city's own website said the weekend snowfall hit 25 cm, Saric said there are other factors at play and the city considers the ability of light cars and trucks to navigate roads before activating the emergency plan.

"Mobility across the city is sufficient and acceptable for now," Saric said.