Every time there’s a significant snowfall in the region, the response from some members of the public about snow removal is predictable.
People are always ready to jump on the Municipality of North Cowichan or provincial contractors depending on the jurisdiction for not doing a good job – whether it’s actually true or not.
The weather in this part of the world is obviously very volatile and can literally be quite differnent between two locations even a short distance apart. All that workers charged with keeping our roads salted, sanded and cleared can do is keep a close eye on the forecast and act accordingly.
It’s never going to be a perfect system because that would be impossible based on the timing of the systems that bring the snow, whether it changes to sleet, freezing rain or, in fact, just rain.
From all accounts, the municipality did a good job around Chemainus during the latest snowfall, jumping on the major routes quickly and methodically getting to all the secondary roads and rural locations in due course.
The thing people have to appreciate is a lot of snow fell during last week’s latest storms. It’s never easy to clear that much snow in a timely manner, no matter how hard you try.
Experience has created a much better game plan, if you will, and for the most part it worked out well.
But Saltair seems to be in no man’s land between North Cowichan crews who service Chemainus and the Town of Ladysmith’s boundaries for employing its workers. Many people indicated on social media Saltair was sadly neglected this time.
It should be pointed out the Cowichan Valley Regional District is not responsible for the maintenance and snow plowing of roads. Within the CVRD’s electoral areas, all of the roads are the responsibility of the Ministry of Transport and Infrastructure.
But this is where it gets confusing. Mainroad Mid-Island is responsible for Area G (Saltair) along with Area H (Diamond and North Oyster) within the CVRD, but Emcon Services handles Thetis Island that’s also part of Area G.
In either case, Saltair could certainly use more attention and residents have surely made their voices heard.