Sidewalk snow impassable for Winnipeg family whose daughter uses a wheelchair – Winnipeg | The Canadian News

A Winnipeg family expresses frustration over the city’s snow plowing efforts, as unpaved sidewalks in their neighborhood make it impossible for their daughter who uses a wheelchair to get outside.

Kylie and Ernie Remillard told 680 CJOB their 15-year-old daughter, Ayla, misses the much-needed fresh air due to impassable sidewalks.

“We like to go outside every day, especially through the pandemic, just for mental health,” Kylie said.

“We have found that with the colder weather and with much more snow, it becomes much more difficult. Our daughter has a rare genetic disorder and is very disabled – she is 100 percent dependent on us, so getting out on a normal day is very difficult.

“By the time you get out with all the snow, try to get her in her wheelchair… and get her in the trenches of the snow, it’s very difficult to push her into it.”

Kylie and Ayla.Ernie said the family lives near St. Vital shopping center and usually has access to a number of local trails and paths that are available for wheelchair use even in winter, but so far this season has been an outlier.

“The real sidewalks are really clogged with ice, and wheelchairs are not built for a Winnipeg climate, so it’s one of those things where you’re really limited. “You can not do much and you end up taking her wheelchair on the road, which is very dangerous,” he said.

“There are very few things we can all do as a family, and it is one of those very important things for us. When our daughter climbs into her wheelchair and she is outside, you just see the calmness come over her body and she is just a very different child – she is calm.

“We always try to step back and realize what other people are going through – there are only so many dollars to go around – but at the end of the day I feel Winnipeg is one of those inclusive communities where it is very important to have people. to see with disabilities out and around. ”

The Remillards have admitted that they are just one of hundreds of Winnipeg families dealing with the same issue – an issue city officials hope to address sooner rather than later.

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In a statement Wednesday, a city spokesman said teams are working all day to clear streets, sidewalks, back roads and active transportation lanes. They say about 300 pieces of heavy equipment are used to clean up after a major snowfall – and it’s not uncommon for some of that equipment to break during a cold break.

The city preaches patience as it tries to dig out Winnipeg.

Winnipeg’s street maintenance manager told Global News on Tuesday that removing the snowdrifts was not a cheap or overnight operation.

“We will get to that. “We have a plan to move forward for the next, probably five weeks,” he said.

“We are going to reduce stacks day and night. We ask residents for a little patience while we remove the amount of snow we have received. ”

Michael Cantor said it would have been impossible for the city to clear the stacks that blocked the sidewalks at the same time it was clearing residential streets.

Mayor Brian Bowman told 680 CJOB Winnipeg already had more snow at this point in the winter than the city had seen all of last year.

“We can not clean them all at the same time – it would be ideal, I know we will welcome them all,” he said.

“What the teams do is they clean the streets, the back lanes, the sidewalks, the active transport roads, based on a priority system.

“We will still analyze how effective the policy is, where improvements can be made. Winnipeggers expect a lot, and they deserve good service, so Winnipeggers are going to voice their criticism when they feel it is justified, and we need to listen and be open to continuing to make policy improvements.

According to Bowman, the city has already cleared enough snow to fill an enormous 16 swimming pools of Olympic size – or more than the distance of a round trip from Vancouver to Halifax – but that does not make it easier for people with disabilities .

Tracy Garbutt of the CNIB said visually impaired Winnipeggers are also struggling with the situation, and this is nothing new.

“I literally picked up large pieces and kind of threw them to the side while hooking up with my dog ​​behind me to climb down the sidewalk,” he said.

“Enough is enough, and with GPS and everything else we can see how they clean up, if they missed well – and I think if they analyze it really differently, they’ll be able to do it faster and better.

“It has been proposed for years and nothing has changed.”

Garbutt said due to the high snowdrifts near crossroads, his guide dog should take him much closer to potentially dangerous oncoming traffic just so they can cross the street.

“We have to see how we can go back over certain areas or put up the snow fences, because there are many places along Portage (avenue) where it is blown in the next day, and with this wind and this snow we have – it’s quite frustrating . ”