Auditor General report criticizes winter road clearing

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No one wants to think about ice and snow, but a scathing report from Ontario’s Auditor General found that it’s now taking more than twice as long to clear snow and ice from our highways than it did five years ago.

In 2009, Ontario changed the way it offered contracts for winter road clearing. It started picking contractors based on the cheapest price, and letting them figure out how to get the job done. Auditor General Bonnie Lysyk found that winter driving conditions on highways deteriorated after those changes – and that the government knew that, but did nothing. In 2009, it took an average of 2.1 hours to get a road down to bare pavement after a snow storm. In 2013, it took an average of 4.7 hours – more than twice the time.

“Snow was not being cleared as fast, ice was not being removed as quickly… And so the highways were not being cleared as well…or maintained as well as in the past.” Bonnie Lysyk says, when road clearing contracts changed, winners were chosen based on cost – even though ministry staff warned that they didn’t have the equipment necessary to do the job. “The contracts were still awarded when contractors provided assurances that they’d be able to do the work as expected.”

In most cases, the contractors saved money by reducing salt and sand usage. “Some contractors almost eliminated the use of anti-icing fluid all together. For example, in one area of the province, use of anti icing liquid over the winter season went from an average of 3.2 million litres to 95 hundred litres in the first year.”

There was little oversight. The ministry could impose fines if the work wasn’t done but, “in the winter of 2013-14 the ministry assessed more than 13 million dollars in fines, and then waived nearly five million of that.”

The province saved money, but now it has to go back and re-negotiate to bring service levels back up, so some of those savings have been lost. “I completely accept the responsibility that we need to get this right and we will” said Transportation Minister Steven Del Duca. He says the province started fixing the problems in 2013 and has added more than 100 pieces of equipment. “Subject to approvals, we will have the new equipment in place and our contractors will be prepared to regularly use de-icing liquid by the start of next winter season.”

But the opposition isn’t so sure. “Bottom line, they knew it and they did nothing to stop it” said PC Michael Harris.

“Because of decisions this government made, some people were injured or killed on Ontario highways” said NDP Wayne Gates.

Opposition members say the problems still exist because there are still 29 of these contracts in place across the province, with the same providers. The Auditor General noted there are also about 200 legal claims against the ministry right now, related to lack of road maintenance.