The budget for Medicine Hat's snow removal program was about $1.7 million in 2023, city staff said. (City of Medicine Hat)

By Eli J. Ridder | @EliRidder

Medicine Hat’s 2023 snow removal program goes $100K over budget, city says

Jan 2, 2024 | 3:07 PM

The City of Medicine Hat’s snow removal program went slightly over budget in 2023, city staff said Tuesday.

An unusually cold 2022-2023 winter season without any of the typical warm spells to break it up cut deeply into the approximately $1.7-million budget, operations engineer Craig Maunder said.

“The first six months or 2023 ended up eating up approximately 70 per cent of the budget,” Maunder told CHAT News.

“The actuals for 2023 ended up being about $1.8 million.”

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While the program was $100,000 over budget, Maunder said the city likely won’t end up pulling from its severe weather reserve.

In cases where snow removal is under budget, the allocated funds do not go to waste.

“What you ends up doing is spending money in other areas doing works that needs to be done anyways,” Maunder said.

Craig Maunder, operations engineer, says the snow removal program went slighly over budget. (CHAT News)

City clean up crews will be out working to keep Hatters safe no matter the day when heavy weather strikes.

“Every day, regardless of the time and day of the week, we’re always keeping an eye on those kids of road conditions and sending guys out to address those much like what happened yesterday,” Maunder said.

“That was a day off. So our guys are definitely out there whenever [they] need to.”