Walking in Waterloo Region

[BuildingScout]

Mayor Dave's response is disappointing: 

Thanks for your input. Sidewalk clearing is regularly considered, and most recently in 2008 or so.  The costs are noticeably different than what a citizen guessed in the newspaper, and based on previous surveys, the desire from citizens for this service was relatively low.  And the timeliness expectation is quite high (‘by sunrise’).
We definitely will keep this in mind for the future and I do expect that one day, it will be a reality. 

I explicitly asked for the cost number. Perhaps "noticeably different" is close enough to the citizen's guess that the city doesn't want to tell us lest it drive up the demand.

Guess what folks? I got my hands on a City of Waterloo study from a few years back and the numbers are  close to those indicated in the newspaper column. It would cost $1.2M to clear all the sidewalks in the City of Waterloo. There are 42K households in the City, cost per household: $28 a year.

One must add that the study falls on the high side. For example they are budgeting for the purchase of expensive snow plowing equipment ($4.5M) which would amount to a rather large fleet of expensive plows. Several similar sized cities report than less than 10 vehicles are necessary.