City to spend $12M on 'Snowtember' recovery in 2016
CBC News | Posted: March 2, 2016 7:55 PM | Last Updated: March 2, 2016
City wants to increase tree canopy from 8.4% to 20%
The city is planning to spend almost $12 million this year as the recovery continues from a devastating snowstorm in September 2014.
That event — which has become known as Snowtember — damaged thousands of trees across the city.
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Last year 128,000 trees were assessed and pruned by city crews, and 7,500 new trees were planted.
Nico Bernard with the parks department says the pruning will continue, and they hope to plant 9,000 more trees this year.
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"Through the municipal development plan, we want to see 20 per cent tree canopy cover in the city and we only have 8.4 per cent now so we still have a long ways to get there," Bernard said.
"With these kind of events and the flood event actually, we lost a lot of trees and it takes a long time to replenish that."
The city did ask the province for disaster assistance to help cover the cost of the recovery, but it refused.
The city is taking the $35 million cost for the three-year recovery program from its reserve funds.