Hello Mr. ---------,

I'm a resident in your District. My workplace is also here. I walk to work, between -------- and --------, along ------ Road, every single day. I am conserving money and energy, and do not wish to change my mode of travel.

However. Since the large, surprise snowstorm on Wednesday, the sidewalk along ------ Road has only been ploughed once - on Wednesday. It's been snowing almost continually since. I can understand and maybe even forgive a day or even two of getting to the sidewalks, but this is now Monday and the sidewalk is still not cleared.

This morning, what normally takes 12 minutes took closer to 40 due to the four inches of slushy snow on the sidewalk; not to mention the huge pileups of snow from the driveways of businesses which they inconsiderately piled into the sidewalk that I had to crawl over. At one point, I actually had to walk on the road - ------ Road, a main throughfare - because I simply couldn't get to the sidewalk.

Not only is this inconvenient, but I have an injured knee. It can sustain regular walking, but breaks down on irregular terrain. I am limping today, because someone did not bother to see if the sidewalks were clear.

I walked this same route all last winter as well, and the conditions were the same. Sometimes it was ploughed, sometimes not.

As my Councillor, I hope you can please do something about this. Not everyone drives, and just because the roads are clear doesn't mean that whoever does snow removal can breathe easy. The rest of us who aren't polluting the air have to get to work, too. Not to mention to the Medical Arts building, the provincial building, and the two apartment complexes largely populated with seniors. This must be addressed.

I am writing to you as my first contact, but if I don't get an answer in the next couple of days as to what sort of plan will be put in place for effective sidewalk clearing (as well as road clearing), I will write to the mayor as well. This isn't a threat by any means, I just want to let you know my course of action.

Thanks for reading,

Gayle Bird