City hopes to save up to $400,000 on snow, ice removal

Last year's freakishly warm winter could add dump trucks of cold, hard cash to the City of Sault Ste. Marie's 2024 finances.

"Winter control expenditures have been analyzed in depth," Steve Facey, the city's manager of finance, says in a second-quarter financial report to be presented to city council on Monday.

Facey says that as of June 30, "a surplus in the range of $250,000 to $400,000 can be anticipated for 2024" from lower winter maintenance costs on the city's 1,225 lane kilometres of roadway and selected sidewalks.

"This is assuming that November and December winter events can be managed with remaining budgets," he says.

"Staff will return to council once the fourth quarter has concluded and will reflect on total spending with respect to these activities."

So far this year, the city has spent $5.06 million on winter control, leaving $3.19 million in the budget for the remaining two winter months.

Last year's meteorological winter – the three months December to February – was Canada's warmest on record: 5.2C toastier than average and 1.1 degrees warmer than the previous record set in 2009-2010.

Some other Facey fiscal factoids, excerpted from his report to city council:

• the second quarter had positive assessment growth of 0.22 per cent
• building permits totalled approximately $111.6 million, compared to $63.7 million last year
• will return during the third quarter report with a refined estimate of salary gapping
• a year after being allowed to hire more firefighters, salary costs in that department are "trending close to budget and overtime costs are manageable within the existing line items"

Monday's city council meeting will be live-streamed on SooToday starting at 5 p.m.