Deputy-Mayor elect Sheldon Forgette says he wants to see more money spent on the city's winter road maintenance, and he's willing to put more money in next year's budget to pay for it.
"I know one thing for sure, I'd like to see snow bank removal on major roads happen more frequently, especially in the O'Brien Street area. You've got students walking to St. Joseph Scollard Hall and people are trying to pull out onto O'Brien. I think if we remove those snowbanks it would make it much safer for those students to get to school."
Forgette also wants to see the salting and sanding of city streets increased.
"Absolutely," Forgette told BayToday. "I don't have a dollar figure right now but it's something I'm looking at.
"I know our reserves are pretty depleted for winter maintenance, so I think there might be an increase in the 2015 budget with regards to winter maintenance. I'm not unhappy. I think everybody does a great job, but I'd like to see it improve a bit."
Forgette thinks spending more can actually save money.
"If people want to talk about 'Oh, our taxes are going up', you can look at it this way.
"If you're preventing accidents from happening, so you're actually going to save money on taxes because they won't have to go to the hospital. They won't have to go and get their car fixed if they get into a collision...things like that."
As deputy mayor Forgette also becomes the budget chief.
"It's something I'm going to bring up as we start the 2015 budget process," he said.
