The South Coast has been hit hard the past few weeks - bringing snow and lots of it.
You would think that with this smack of winter, road crews would be out there clearing our streets, making it at least a bit easier to get around. While the main roads have been pretty good, most of the side streets up and down the Coast in every community have been ignored. Our newsroom has been flooded with emails from frustrated residents who have been snowbound for days with little relief except the warming temperatures and some rain to wash away a bit of the snow, allowing for some movement.
Some streets have not seen a plow in well over a week. In a lot of these areas live senior citizens and the elderly, incapable of digging out. They've been trapped by the snow for who knows how long. Business owners have been affected, as they have not been able to get to their businesses to open up to the public who have been able to get around.
And what about home-based businesses? We received an email from one resident who lives in an area of Halfmoon Bay where seven business owners were affected, as their street was not cleared. Finally on Dec. 27 the resident hired an independent contractor on his own to clear the street.
Thankfully, to our knowledge, no one was seriously injured or killed because of the heavy snow and impassible roads, but what could have happened if someone was hurt or injured? Without clear roads, how are emergency services, police, ambulance and fire supposed to get to the scene? By dog sled, it appears, because they wouldn't be able to use their emergency vehicles.
Capilano Highways clearly cannot handle the road clearing duties on the Sunshine Coast. Whether it is lack of equipment, money, manpower or a combination of all three, Capilano Highways has no business getting this contract next year.
It's time that the provincial government, Sunshine Coast Regional District, District of Sechelt and Town of Gibsons all review the snow clearing and road maintenance for our area and fix this problem now.
On Sunday's Global TV 6 p.m. news, New Democrat MLA Adrian Dix called for an independent review of TransLink and Vancouver International Airport and their response during the snow. Clearly we weren't the only ones with poor snow removal. But we can't be waiting for reviews and studies. The money spent on this should be spent on more plows and more manpower now, not later. Residents can't be held hostage waiting for their street to be cleared the next time we have a huge dump of snow.
