While residential snow removal doesn’t appear to be headed to the city of Lethbridge according to Mayor Chris Spearman, the topic has still come up in recent weeks.

The city of Lethbridge has said if they were to ever go ahead with this plan, residents would pay a price.

Residential snow removal would cost citizens of Lethbridge a four per cent increase in taxes.

This tax increase would be necessary to cover the extra $5 million focused on residential streets on top of the $4.5 million already in the city’s budget.

Mayor Chris Spearman says it’s because of this reason he doesn’t see this as a viable option for the city.

“There’s about 10 times as many residential streets as there are main arteries, so at minimum it would cost a four per cent tax increase,” said Spearman.

The mayor adds he believes the community would shut this proposal down because the overall majority of residents wouldn’t be willing to pay the price to have residential snow removal added to the city budget.

Spearman also says he doesn’t see this becoming a topic in future years when the city continues to grow.

“It will never be an issue. People always drive slow on residential streets and we rarely have accidents on residential streets,” said Spearman.

The city would also be unable to continue the windrowing process because the focus would be shifted to the residential areas of the city.

Spearman says there are some people who would like to see residential snow removal but that these residents are few and far between.

One of those residents is Dave Reid who says although the tax increase wouldn’t be great, he would appreciate it for the severe winters we may have in the future.

“I think it would greatly improve the streets during winters like this one. The tax increase would sting a little but it would be worth it,” said Reid.

Although there are a few residents who would like to see this implemented, Mayor Spearman holds fast to the idea that residential snow removal will never be a part of Lethbridge’s winters.