Two roads diverged into an urban wood and sorry was I for having to travel both. Being one traveller, long I stood (actually I was sitting behind the wheel safe and warm) and looked down the lane as far as I could into a residential area of Edmonton.
I stared, in shock and awe, at the size and depth of the ruts in the unplowed road that lay ahead. I had to decide whether it was better to aim straight and bottom out or veer to the side and straddle the curb. I bottomed out, grinding along until I stopped at the house of former Gazette photographer-turned-political-science-student Ben Lemphers, who was up for a few industry awards.
After picking up the student, I again aimed for the ruts but this time didn’t fare so well. My mighty Saturn, while economical on gas, wasn’t prepared for this kind of abuse and became high-centred on a mountain of snow and ice. It took four guys, one useless plastic shovel, a busted ice scraper fashioned into a pickaxe and a pair of previously crisp pants (sorry, Lemphers) to send us on our way and to three photo awards for the paper.
The other road was in St. Albert as I made my way to an outdoor rink in Forest Lawn last week. Like the Edmonton road, it was a route less travelled but at least had been plowed once this year, not to the pavement mind you, but at least was free of crevasse-like ruts. And that made all the difference. Poor Robert Frost analogies notwithstanding, the two experiences highlight the vast divide in the quality of snow plowing service in St. Albert and the capital and the public reaction to it. Despite what some letter writers would have you believe, St. Albert has done an admirable job keeping roads relatively clear in the face of near-record amounts of snowfall. Meanwhile, Edmonton city hall has been besieged with so many complaints (19,000, according to one story in the metro dailies), Mayor Stephen Mandel apologized to residents while plows still scramble to reach some neighbourhoods.
Snow clearing highlights how quiet things are in St. Albert where our new city council has had very little in the way of controversy. It’s been so quiet that when a city councillor recently quizzed me about what I saw as the “biggest” controversy this year, I heard crickets. Curbside organics pickup is about the closest thing resembling a blip on the anger-o-meter, generating a few letters to the editor and grumbles in the community, mostly from people who already compost for their garden. Expect that to ramp up closer to the June implementation date unless the city is able to sell the program’s merits (in terms of reducing landfill costs) to a wide audience.
The issue that should be the most controversial no longer falls into the local realm. The city announced yesterday that ambulance response times under the new provincial scheme have fallen to 10 minutes, 44 seconds — below the former goal of nine minutes, 90 per cent of the time when the city ran the service. The numbers are downright scandalous when looking at response times for ambulances coming to St. Albert from Edmonton (22:05), or Spruce Grove, Morinville or Parkland County (23:44).
The city is using all its political tools to convince Alberta Health Services to pony up for a third St. Albert ambulance. It’s the type of controversy we’re increasingly used to from AHS, hopefully one the city can help resolve. If not, the consequences could be more severe than cars stuck in the snow or expensive banana peels.
Bryan Alary is an editor at the Gazette.
