Taxis, couriers open to snow removal review

Those who drive on Regina’s roads for a living say they would be open to changes when it comes to snow removal.

A large dump of the white stuff earlier in March made residential streets impassable in some cases, which made things difficult for couriers and taxis.

Regina Mayor Michael Fougere said on Monday he will be asking city administration to examine all aspects of the snow removal program.

Akshay Padama, general manager at Co-op Taxi, said their fleet of 80 cars was halved due to the snow.

“Thirty per cent were stuck at some time for a couple hours and the other 20 per cent didn’t want to take a chance they stayed at home.”

Padama said he’s been with Co-op since 2010 and had never had to deal with a situation like it before.
Coutts Couriers ran into issues trying to maneuver down roadways. The service delivers a wide-variety of items, including medication.

“It’s probably the first time we faced any issues of any major event in quite some time,” Owner Ron Coutts said.

He said the area with the biggest issues for them was the downtown area due to a lack of parking space.

“While the street might’ve been clear, the sides were not and there was just no place to park.”

Residential areas also caused Coutts Couriers problems as they had to check in with customers to determine if their roads were even accessible.

“Quite often the answer we would get was ‘No, there’s vehicles stuck now so maybe you should wait and do it tomorrow’ so we were able to be proactive and avoid some of the issues but not in every case, we certainly had drivers getting stuck,” Coutts said.

He said he would like to see a contingency fund to bring in subcontractors and extra crews when an unprecedented snowfall occurs.

— With files from Sarah Mills and Britton Gray