Metro Van councillors call for ‘snow summit’ to better prepare cities for snowstorms 

Two Metro Vancouver city councillors want the region to host a “snow summit” to get ahead of storms and road clearing this winter.

New Westminster coun. Daniel Fontaine and Surrey coun. Linda Annis are behind the push, saying they have yet to hear from “the province, contractors, Metro Vancouver, or local municipalities about better preparations for 2023.”

They add the summit would be an opportunity for experts and local politicians to discuss what went wrong in 2022 and identify how the region can better handle snowstorms going forward. The experts would range from those in road safety, transit, and even the cities’ engineering departments.

Fontaine points to Nov. 29, 2022, when there was a complete traffic gridlock in Metro Vancouver, with some people spending 12-14 hours getting home, when usually it would take them one hour.

“This time last year, our roads and bridges ground to a halt, showing just how unprepared we were as a region,” Fontaine told CityNews.

“During that snow storm it wasn’t just an inconvenience for people … we had ambulances and firetrucks stuck in traffic, you had complete gridlock and complete shut down. We were very lucky that an emergency didn’t happen that day and we didn’t have to send firs respondents to a four alarm fire and couldn’t reach it for example … we don’t want to be in that position again.”

“Considering how many people were impacted so severely that day, the least we owe them is an explanation as to why our transportation system shut down,” Fontaine continued.

He adds that storm was not even in the top 10 worst the region has seen.

“All of our communities in the region are connected by highways and bridges,” explained Annis in a release.

“If the highway or bridge I use to get home is choked or closed and I’m stuck in my car overnight, then ploughed streets in my own neighbourhood means only half the problem is solved.”

Fontaine says the City of New Westminster previously put forward a motion to Metro Vancouver for a snow summit but it was voted down. Despite this, he adds Metro Vancouver could have taken on the initiative given the severity of snowstorms the past few years.

He says he is worried about the upcoming winter, adding “we need to do better in 2023 and there is certainly an opportunity to have that discussion.”

The councillors are hoping the summit can help with better regional coordination going forward and preparing the public in advance with warnings.

“We’ve been talking about climate change for a long time in this region and part of that talk of climate change it means we need to take action, when we see things like this happening we need to be prepared,” Fontaine said.