Aquatera recently acquired the private company, Watchhorn Rentals, through a subsidiary company (see press release). As a shareholder of Aquatera, the City was able to cast a vote on the deal. There was a majority of support on Council, so Mayor Given cast our vote in favour of the deal. I was opposed and thought I'd share why:
First of all, I was not opposed because I thought it was a bad business deal. The fundamentals of the acquired company are solid and the leadership of Aquatera did their due diligence in ensuring the acquisition was not going to expose ratepayers to much risk. I think that going forward Watchorn Rentals will continue to succeed and be a valuable asset to Aquatera. It will provide Aquatera with an additional revenue stream that will translate into higher dividends for shareholders.
So why the heck was I opposed then?
I was opposed to the deal on a matter of principle. I believe there are only a few instances where governments should be competing openly in private markets. While Aquatera is not a government entity, it is wholly-owned by municipalities and has a government-granted monopoly over several public utility services. As such, my rationale applies to them as well.
Why?
I believe the government's role in the economy is to set the rules by which the market will function and then regulate and enforce those rules. It is often unfair when governments enter the market as a player as they have powers, resources, and revenue streams that are not accessible to private companies. In the case of Aquatera, the company has revenue from municipal ratepayers that could be used to finance expansion of their acquisition. Watchorn's competitor's do not.
There are times when I believe it is justifiable for governments to enter the private market as opposed to just regulating it. For example, sometimes the market is failing to provide a certain product or service or is unable to meet demand. Sometimes there are overarching health and safety reasons. However, in this case, the goal is to provide additional revenue to Aquatera. The rationale is that this revenue stream will moderate utility rates while providing greater dividends to shareholders.
While this is a laudable goal on the surface, it does raise a major philosophical question: Should governments compete in the private market as a way to obtain additional revenue?
For example, the City could turn each of its departments into municipal corporations and we could have Parks out bidding for private mowing contracts or Transportation competing to paint lines in private parking lots. This would provide the City with additional revenue, but at what cost? An undermining of our robust business environment, in my view.
While this is an extreme example (which I doubt would ever receive ministerial approval), the underlying principles are the same.
I will continue to be opposed to governments and/or municipally controlled corporations competing in the private sector unless there are justifiable reasons which do not include "additional revenue" alone.
Monday, January 20, 2014
Sunday, January 12, 2014
How are others in northern Alberta/BC dealing with this snow?
I'm sure by now you've heard how this has been a record-breaking year for snow across much of northern Alberta/BC. I thought it would be useful to look at how other cities are doing on residential snow removal to put our efforts in context and to look for best practices as it relates to policy.
My research is based on searches of newspaper articles, Facebook/Twitter feeds, press releases and info on municipal websites in addition to anecdotal accounts from people I know in some of the cities. Please let me know if there's another city I should be looking at or if you can add anything to what's been written.
Grande Prairie
Snowfall this winter: 192 cms
Residential rotations: 2 complete, 3 in some areas. Removal of windrows has commenced.
Driveway windrow clearing: Council decided to move to the "blitz" method of plowing streets on Dec. 17th which left residents responsible for clearing windrows left at ends of driveways.
Fort St. John
Snowfall this winter: 202 cms
Residential rotations: 1 in mid-December, 1 ongoing
Driveway windrow clearing: Yes
I found an interesting post by FSJ's mayor who was responding to comments that snow removal was taking too long. She reposted the article in the DHT which talks about GP's switch of policies and suggested that FSJ may want to look at going that route to speed things up.
Dawson Creek
Snowfall this winter: N/A
Residential rotations: 2 complete, Crews are now working on removing snow piles.
Driveway windrow clearing: No
Their website quite bluntly explains why driveway entrances are not cleared:
FAQ: When the snowplow goes by and clears the road, he also blocks my driveway with snow. Will the City clear my driveway?
Unfortunately, the answer is no. Clearing individual driveways is extremely expensive and places a huge strain on City resources.
Prince George
Snowfall this winter: N/A
Residential rotations: 1 completed in mid-December, 1 began over the last week
Driveway windrow clearing: Yes
I had the most trouble finding information on PG. There were no news releases on their website, they don't have a Facebook/Twitter account and there were only a couple articles in the PG Citizen.According to multiple letters to the editor over the last couple of days, there are still many impassable roads with deep ruts being a major concern.
PG does do residential plowing through the night. When they do this, vehicles are allowed to be parked on the street, but only on the odd side. Could be something to look at for some areas in GP.
While PG's snow removal website lacks information on when crews are going to be around, it does provide a host of other information that I think would be useful for GP to have as well. You can check it out here.
Edmonton
Snowfall this winter: 82 cms
Residential rotations: 2 completed
Driveway windrow clearing: No
Residential roads in Edmonton are only plowed to a 5cm snow pack. No windrows are removed from residential areas. Residents are responsible for clearing out windrows at driveways.
Interesting part of Edmonton policy: any windrows that are over 30cms in front of driveways, the City will come by and clear out. I'd like to find out more about how this policy works and see if something could be instituted like this if we continue with this policy.
Here's an easy-to-read breakdown on Edmonton & Calgary's snow removal policies.
Strathcona County (Sherwood Park)
Snowfall this winter: 82 cms
Residential rotations: 1 completed in early December, 1 begins tomorrow (the 13th)
Driveway windrow clearing: N/A
Website says it takes 12 days to complete a full rotation. Snow policy says that snow is plowed to middle of road and windrowed to be removed later. This must mean all of Sherwood Park's roads are wide enough to accommodate this. I haven't spent much time in SP, so let me know if my assumptions are correct.
Red Deer
Snowfall this winter: 112 cms
Residential rotations: 2 surface plows completed, 1 full plow to begin this week
Driveway windrow clearing: No
Red Deer went through a very similar situation to us this year. They decided in early December that they would initiate surface plowing (or the "blitz" method as we called it) in residential areas where the goal was to create windrows not higher than 16". They initiated another round of this type of plowing on Jan. 1st and completed plowing on the 10th. The goal is to now begin a full plow of residential roads with removal of windrows and clearing to pavement. The estimated time to complete this is 40 days.
St. Albert
Snowfall this winter: 90 cms
Residential rotations: 1 completed in early December
Driveway windrow clearing: Yes
St. Albert is considering doing a second round, but no decision has been made yet. It takes 2-3 weeks to plow through residential areas.
Observations
Not surprisingly, the cities with the "blitz" method have progressed much quicker with their residential snow removal.
There are a number of things we can learn from other cities to improve our policies and I look forward to studying them more as we decide whether to adopt this policy permanently.
I have to give props to all our staff who have been involved with communication. Our daily updates which span all media types is above par and staff should be commended greatly for this.
Please let me know your thoughts!
My research is based on searches of newspaper articles, Facebook/Twitter feeds, press releases and info on municipal websites in addition to anecdotal accounts from people I know in some of the cities. Please let me know if there's another city I should be looking at or if you can add anything to what's been written.
Grande Prairie
Snowfall this winter: 192 cms
Residential rotations: 2 complete, 3 in some areas. Removal of windrows has commenced.
Driveway windrow clearing: Council decided to move to the "blitz" method of plowing streets on Dec. 17th which left residents responsible for clearing windrows left at ends of driveways.
Fort St. John
Snowfall this winter: 202 cms
Residential rotations: 1 in mid-December, 1 ongoing
Driveway windrow clearing: Yes
I found an interesting post by FSJ's mayor who was responding to comments that snow removal was taking too long. She reposted the article in the DHT which talks about GP's switch of policies and suggested that FSJ may want to look at going that route to speed things up.
Dawson Creek
Snowfall this winter: N/A
Residential rotations: 2 complete, Crews are now working on removing snow piles.
Driveway windrow clearing: No
Their website quite bluntly explains why driveway entrances are not cleared:
FAQ: When the snowplow goes by and clears the road, he also blocks my driveway with snow. Will the City clear my driveway?
Unfortunately, the answer is no. Clearing individual driveways is extremely expensive and places a huge strain on City resources.
Prince George
Snowfall this winter: N/A
Residential rotations: 1 completed in mid-December, 1 began over the last week
Driveway windrow clearing: Yes
I had the most trouble finding information on PG. There were no news releases on their website, they don't have a Facebook/Twitter account and there were only a couple articles in the PG Citizen.According to multiple letters to the editor over the last couple of days, there are still many impassable roads with deep ruts being a major concern.
PG does do residential plowing through the night. When they do this, vehicles are allowed to be parked on the street, but only on the odd side. Could be something to look at for some areas in GP.
While PG's snow removal website lacks information on when crews are going to be around, it does provide a host of other information that I think would be useful for GP to have as well. You can check it out here.
Edmonton
Snowfall this winter: 82 cms
Residential rotations: 2 completed
Driveway windrow clearing: No
Residential roads in Edmonton are only plowed to a 5cm snow pack. No windrows are removed from residential areas. Residents are responsible for clearing out windrows at driveways.
Interesting part of Edmonton policy: any windrows that are over 30cms in front of driveways, the City will come by and clear out. I'd like to find out more about how this policy works and see if something could be instituted like this if we continue with this policy.
Here's an easy-to-read breakdown on Edmonton & Calgary's snow removal policies.
Strathcona County (Sherwood Park)
Snowfall this winter: 82 cms
Residential rotations: 1 completed in early December, 1 begins tomorrow (the 13th)
Driveway windrow clearing: N/A
Website says it takes 12 days to complete a full rotation. Snow policy says that snow is plowed to middle of road and windrowed to be removed later. This must mean all of Sherwood Park's roads are wide enough to accommodate this. I haven't spent much time in SP, so let me know if my assumptions are correct.
Red Deer
Snowfall this winter: 112 cms
Residential rotations: 2 surface plows completed, 1 full plow to begin this week
Driveway windrow clearing: No
Red Deer went through a very similar situation to us this year. They decided in early December that they would initiate surface plowing (or the "blitz" method as we called it) in residential areas where the goal was to create windrows not higher than 16". They initiated another round of this type of plowing on Jan. 1st and completed plowing on the 10th. The goal is to now begin a full plow of residential roads with removal of windrows and clearing to pavement. The estimated time to complete this is 40 days.
St. Albert
Snowfall this winter: 90 cms
Residential rotations: 1 completed in early December
Driveway windrow clearing: Yes
St. Albert is considering doing a second round, but no decision has been made yet. It takes 2-3 weeks to plow through residential areas.
Observations
Not surprisingly, the cities with the "blitz" method have progressed much quicker with their residential snow removal.
There are a number of things we can learn from other cities to improve our policies and I look forward to studying them more as we decide whether to adopt this policy permanently.
I have to give props to all our staff who have been involved with communication. Our daily updates which span all media types is above par and staff should be commended greatly for this.
Please let me know your thoughts!
Saturday, January 4, 2014
Who are the "Morons" That Approved this Snow Plan?
Who are the morons, idiots, losers, [insert other pejorative term here] that approved this new snow plan? Well, I'm one of them. And I'm going to vote to continue this plan on Tuesday. This post will tell you why.
Let me start by saying thank you to everyone who gave feedback on our snow removal plans. I received many Facebook posts, emails, tweets and phone calls with your input. It was also the hot topic at holiday parties this year and I spent many a moment conversing about the intricacies of snow removal.
After taking this input into account and evaluating the data from our Transportation department, I have decided that I will be supporting the new "blitz" snow removal policy for the rest of the season. Here are the reasons why:
1. Speed
Under the blitz method of snow removal, we are able to have every residential street done in 5 days. Under the old plan, it takes anywhere from 36 to 48 days with this much snow. Quite frankly, clearing out the driveway of every one of the 22,000+ dwellings in GP is a tedious, slow going process. Additionally, the longer the snow sits and gets compacted, the longer it takes to remove, thus compounding the problem.
Having roads impassable for weeks on end is unacceptable. People need to get to work, ambulances need to get to homes, and garbage needs to be removed. Simply put, the new plan allows for us to be much quicker with making the roads passable.
2. Predictability
The new plan allows for us to more accurately say where crews are going to be on any given day. We can develop a 5 day schedule which could say that on Day 1 of residential snow removal, our crews will be in x, y, and z neighbourhoods. Day 2 we'll be in a, b, and c. And so on. This will help with getting vehicles off the road as there will be a predictable schedule.
3. Cost
The cost of one complete residential snow removal rotation under the old plan is between $500,000-$700,000.
The cost of one rotation under the blitz method is around $130,000.
In other words, we could do 5 rotations under the new plan for the same cost as 1 under the old.
What are the Cons?
The main con under this new plan is that residents are responsible for clearing out the windrows in front of their driveways. This can create serious challenges for seniors or residents with disabilities. This is why we've set up a hotline (780-538-0354 ext. 3) for residents to call should they require assistance with clearing. We will have to develop a policy to establish the program more formally.
I understand there are people who think I'm a "moron" or any other number of names that have come my way because of my support for this plan. Hopefully this post gives insight into my rationale for supporting it. There's always room for improvement though, so please continue sharing your thoughts with me.
I've found the people who have shown the greatest support for this new plan are those from out east where they experience much greater snowfalls and where this type of snow removal is the norm. I've researched dozens of snow removal policies over the last few weeks and have come to the conclusion that our current policy is highly inefficient when it comes to dealing with the great snowfalls we've been receiving.
While GP's long-term annual average snowfall is 158 cms, our average over the last 5 years has been 212 cms. I'm no weather expert, but it seems to me that we should be adjusting our policies to account for snowfalls more akin to what is received out east. On that note, I believe now is the time to change our policies and as such I will be voting in favour at Tuesday's meeting.
You can read Transportation manager Robert Carroll's report on the two plans here.
Odds and Ends
Several people have shared this video of a gate attachment for graders that could hold back snow over driveways. The City bought a couple of these a while ago and found that they work great in rural areas, but that they do not work very good in residential streets with driveways fairly close to one another. Apparently the gate gets clogged with snow way too often slowing down the process dramatically.
Let me start by saying thank you to everyone who gave feedback on our snow removal plans. I received many Facebook posts, emails, tweets and phone calls with your input. It was also the hot topic at holiday parties this year and I spent many a moment conversing about the intricacies of snow removal.
After taking this input into account and evaluating the data from our Transportation department, I have decided that I will be supporting the new "blitz" snow removal policy for the rest of the season. Here are the reasons why:
1. Speed
Under the blitz method of snow removal, we are able to have every residential street done in 5 days. Under the old plan, it takes anywhere from 36 to 48 days with this much snow. Quite frankly, clearing out the driveway of every one of the 22,000+ dwellings in GP is a tedious, slow going process. Additionally, the longer the snow sits and gets compacted, the longer it takes to remove, thus compounding the problem.
Having roads impassable for weeks on end is unacceptable. People need to get to work, ambulances need to get to homes, and garbage needs to be removed. Simply put, the new plan allows for us to be much quicker with making the roads passable.
2. Predictability
The new plan allows for us to more accurately say where crews are going to be on any given day. We can develop a 5 day schedule which could say that on Day 1 of residential snow removal, our crews will be in x, y, and z neighbourhoods. Day 2 we'll be in a, b, and c. And so on. This will help with getting vehicles off the road as there will be a predictable schedule.
3. Cost
The cost of one complete residential snow removal rotation under the old plan is between $500,000-$700,000.
The cost of one rotation under the blitz method is around $130,000.
In other words, we could do 5 rotations under the new plan for the same cost as 1 under the old.
What are the Cons?
The main con under this new plan is that residents are responsible for clearing out the windrows in front of their driveways. This can create serious challenges for seniors or residents with disabilities. This is why we've set up a hotline (780-538-0354 ext. 3) for residents to call should they require assistance with clearing. We will have to develop a policy to establish the program more formally.
I understand there are people who think I'm a "moron" or any other number of names that have come my way because of my support for this plan. Hopefully this post gives insight into my rationale for supporting it. There's always room for improvement though, so please continue sharing your thoughts with me.
I've found the people who have shown the greatest support for this new plan are those from out east where they experience much greater snowfalls and where this type of snow removal is the norm. I've researched dozens of snow removal policies over the last few weeks and have come to the conclusion that our current policy is highly inefficient when it comes to dealing with the great snowfalls we've been receiving.
While GP's long-term annual average snowfall is 158 cms, our average over the last 5 years has been 212 cms. I'm no weather expert, but it seems to me that we should be adjusting our policies to account for snowfalls more akin to what is received out east. On that note, I believe now is the time to change our policies and as such I will be voting in favour at Tuesday's meeting.
You can read Transportation manager Robert Carroll's report on the two plans here.
Odds and Ends
Several people have shared this video of a gate attachment for graders that could hold back snow over driveways. The City bought a couple of these a while ago and found that they work great in rural areas, but that they do not work very good in residential streets with driveways fairly close to one another. Apparently the gate gets clogged with snow way too often slowing down the process dramatically.
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