HRM snow clearing lacks proper monitoring with unknown costs, auditor finds

Unknown cost issues and mismanagement are detailed in a new report as key issues for the city’s snow-clearing teams, the municipality’s auditor general finds.

It describes how Halifax Regional Municipality does not have “adequate monitoring,” making it “impossible” to know the value of its winter service delivery.

Public Works does not assess performance against regional council-approved winter operations standards; instead, it relies on informal monitoring with “limited useful information recorded,” the report reads.

This lack of monitoring is for both contracted services and in-house workers. Third-party snow contracts have adequate performance teams.

On top of that, Andrew Atherton, the auditor general, said there were complaints from the public on snow clearing services and related damage that were not tracked to resolution. Often the reports are assigned to senior staff without follow up, meaning there’s no way to track performance trends.

The report also finds that management does not know the total cost of in-house winter operations.

“Not knowing the total costs may limit HRM’s ability to make appropriate resource allocation decisions,” the auditor general said.  

Questions were raised about whether the city is using performance data effectively to track results and improve the service. Better monitoring and clearer performance expectations are needed, Atherton said, when deciding between in-house crews and private contractors.

The auditor general made 13 recommendations, which management agreed to implement.

Some include a developing process to monitor contractor snow clearing, create service standards, training processes and make plans to address any gaps in service from the year prior.