(file photo/paNOW staff)

By Susan McNeil

Snow clearing

Accumulating snowfall slows down overall clearing response

Jan 6, 2026 | 4:26 PM

A string of snowfalls that haven’t been extremely large but were big enough to need clearing has led to the overall response time lagging.

City of Prince Albert Director of Public Works, Jeff da Silva, said the snow this year has led to some challenges.

“In this winter season, we’ve been seeing quite a few frequent, small snow events,” he said. “But while they’ve been small, they’ve been accumulating and frequent snow events do sort of cause challenges for our department.”

The city has a priority map of streets that need to be cleared first, starting with emergency routes.

When more snow falls, crews have to go back and start at the beginning again.

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“Each time we get a certain amount of snow, we move back to dealing with our priority system, which sees us tackling emergency routes and then transit routes,” he said.

When they’ve caught up with those, then they move on to snow lifts (hauling it out by truck to the city’s dump site) and clearing the streets in the Downtown Improvement District.

There is currently no plan to clear residential streets, but people on streets with deeper ruts can call in to the city’s Solutions Hub at 306-953-4884 to report the issue.

If the ruts are deemed a problem, they will be dealt with. Da Silva said that every report and service request that comes in is reviewed by the manager and staff of the department.

“As we see the conditions getting to a point where we need to do a round of residential grading, then the city will be putting out some notices and proceeding,” he said.

The City of Prince Albert does not have a sidewalk clearing policy but residents are strongly encouraged to clear the sidewalks along their residences to help other foot traffic, especially for people with mobility challenges.

Public Works closed out their 2025 year within their budget but 2026 is still undetermined.

Da Silva asked the public to keep in mind that staff are doing their jobs as best they can.

“They are working long days, they are working very hard and diligently to keep the streets as clear as possible given the ongoing snow conditions we’ve been having,” he said.

The public can report concerns and learn more about the priority map on the city’s website.

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