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Opinion: Now Burnaby wants residents to clear catch basins for it

The great snow storm of 2020 is officially over and life in Burnaby is returning to endless dreary days of rain. So the concern has shifted from snowy streets to localized flooding as all those great, big piles of snow melt.
burnaby snow
This is an example of how to find a catch basin in Burnaby if you feel up for shoveling some more snow. City of Burnaby photo

The great snow storm of 2020 is officially over and life in Burnaby is returning to endless dreary days of rain.

So the concern has shifted from snowy streets to localized flooding as all those great, big piles of snow melt. I already witnessed this late Friday on Lougheed while turning to get onto the Kensington overpass.

The City of Burnaby is now asking residents to help out.

“As snow melts, city operations will shift to prevent flooding,” reads a city tweet on Friday. “You can help by shoveling a narrow channel along the curb, allowing drainage to catch basins as shown in this picture.”

I’ve included a photo provided by the city.

It seems like a simple ask, but should the city really be asking its citizens to do their job for them? Don’t all those taxes pay for staff better suited to go around the city and clear the catch basins?

People are also frustrated at what they view as a mediocre job of snow clearing by the city. Now they have to manage the catch basins as well?

The city does say in a post on its website that crews will be clearing the catch basins. So why ask citizens to also do this job?

It just seems like a bad look to ask residents weary of snow to now ask them to help do the city’s job for them. People pay taxes so the city will do the dirty work for them. That's how this works.

If you can’t find your catch basin, you can look it up by using the BurnabyMap (Select layers > Engineering Operations > Infrastructure > Storm > Catchbasin).