It was a year ago on November 29th that commuters across the Lower Mainland were trapped in their vehicles for upwards of 14 hours as they tried to make their way home during a snow event. The snow began to fall just before rush hour, then within a matter of moments, almost every bridge was in gridlock and the road system shut down in Metro Vancouver.
While that traffic mayhem is now but a distant memory, questions remain as to why a relatively small snowfall had the net result of shutting down our entire transportation network in Canada’s 3rd largest metropolitan region.
It’s one of the reasons NWP Councillor Daniel Fontaine and Surrey Councillor Linda Annis made a joint request to Metro Vancouver to undertake a one-day Snow Summit to find out what happened and why. Unfortunately a motion at New West Council which would have got the ball rolling was defeated 5-2 with all the Community First representatives voting no – again.
“We owe it to the hundreds of thousands of people who were impacted by that snow event to find out what happened and how it can be prevented in the future,” says Fontaine. “My motion was intended to have this be debated at Metro Vancouver and for a Snow Summit to take place with all the subject-matter experts in one room at the same time. Unfortunately, one year later we still have very few answers as to why our snow preparations plans failed so miserably in our region. It looks like we may never know what really happened which means we’re still be at risk of this happening again during a future snow and ice event.”
Fontaine appeared on the Jas Johal Show yesterday and on CBC Radio to discuss the one-year anniversary of Snowmaggedon. Click on the image below to listen to the CKNW interview and click on this link to hear the CBC interview with Fontaine.
