As we enter that uniquely Canadian period of 'almost-spring', the City of Fort Saskatchewan is reminding residents to remain vigilant for icy walkways to avoid potential fines.
Bylaw C17-22 requires both residents and business owners to ensure that their walkways are clear of snow or ice.
"It does fall under our traffic bylaw," said Benjamin Sharpe with Fort Saskatchewan municipal enforcement. "It kind of gets separated into a few different sections."
"We have both the removal of snow or debris from private property as well as commercial property."
On commercial properties, business owners have around 24 hours to remove any snow or ice after a snowfall, while residential owners have a bit more leeway at about 48 hours.
The late winter to early-spring season provides ideal conditions for the formation of ice. This is due to dips between warm and cold temperatures causing snow to melt and refreeze into ice.
"We definitely see an increase in call volume during this time," said Sharpe. "We just ask residents to try to stay on top of it as much as possible."
"We do understand that it could be a daily issue potentially. There is some lenience and discretion on our end, but we still ask residents to try their best as it could be a huge safety issue."
Violations of this bylaw could result in a $150 fine.
"We always take an educational approach first to try to gain that voluntary compliance," said Sharpe. "If we are not able to gain that compliance within that required time, we may move to a violation."
It seems this is a friendly reminder from the city, as 2022 saw residents and business owners do very well following the bylaw.
"For commercial properties, we issued out a total of 12 warnings and there were no tickets issued," said Sharpe. "For residential, we issued a total of 40 warnings and only one ticket."
"[We are] pretty successful in gaining that voluntary compliance through education and warnings."
You can read the entire bylaw here.