How many snowstorms until Lower Mainland has cohesive response? New West councillor asks

A New Westminster city councillor is questioning whether the Lower Mainland is ready for another snowstorm, expected to hit Tuesday night, with no coordinated snow-response across the region.

Coun. Daniel Fontaine says little has changed in the year since he first pushed the idea of holding a “snow summit,” which he hoped would include provincial and regional leaders, and other experts, working together to ensure another snowstorm wouldn’t shut down the region.

“We’re facing another major snowstorm, and I’m hoping we’ll do better than we did a week or so ago, but I’m not convinced,” he told CityNews, referring to last week’s blast of snow.

While bridges shutting down can be chalked up to an inconvenience for many, it can mean the difference between life and death if first responders get stuck in traffic, too.

“I don’t know how many more snowstorms and snow events it’s going to take in order to convince our regional leadership and the Province of B.C. to actually [come] together, all the experts and all the people who were impacted, who understand how to prevent this in the future from happening,” Fontaine said.

More importantly, he says bridges are a concern, pointing to the situation we saw on crossings during a major storm over a year ago.

On Nov. 29, 2022, bridges were shut down and highways were blocked, leaving some people to endure commutes of more than 11 hours.

Surrey Coun. Linda Annis and Fontaine pushed for the snow summit after the ordeal, with Annis leaving Vancouver at 7:15 p.m. Tuesday and not getting home to South Surrey until 4:45 a.m. the next day.

“I’m not willing to keep rolling the dice every time we have a snowstorm and hope that nothing happens because a snowstorm is here — we need to do better than that,” Fontaine said Tuesday.

Meanwhile, the province’s electricity provider says it has been getting better at planning for snowstorms and freezing rain, where ice can topple trees over onto essential infrastructure.

“We have crews that go around year-round and identify vegetation that could be problematic in an ice storm or a wind storm,” BC Hydro spokesperson Susie Reider told CityNews. “The problem with ice, is that it can encase tree branches and obviously make them heavier and fall into electrical equipment and power lines.”

Reider explains that in terms of Tuesday night and Wednesday’s storm, the utility is as prepared as it can be.

“We do have in-house meteorologists and we are watching the system very closely, and we do have crews ready to respond should the lights go out,” she added.

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