Street Sweeping Programs

The City of Lethbridge Transportation Operations department provides the street cleaning services for the city. Historically, service levels included all residential roads being swept during the residential spring sweeping program, all non-residential sweeping was performed during the night and daytime summer sweeping program and fall leaves were swept away in selected residential neighborhoods during the fall leave sweeping program. The general purpose of sweeping is to keep the roads safe and reduce environmental impacts of storm runoff as well as helping to keep the city looking beautiful. 

In 2020, the KPMG report noted the operating budget for the Transportation Operations sweeping program to be $1.4 million. The report identifies the opportunity to evaluate alternative street sweeping options and to consider whether the City should continue its current spring and fall sweeping schedule. 

Since the KPMG report was issued, the City of Lethbridge underwent a budget reduction exercise which resulted in an 18% reduction ($285,000) in the Street Sweeping budget. The results of this budget cut are as follows:

• Reduction of 2 rental street sweepers to the sweeper fleet (7 Sweepers 2020 – 5 Sweepers 2021)
• Elimination of windshield wiper notification and door hangers for spring sweeping
• Significant reduction in summer day sweeping services
• Optimizing the number of passes/streets for spring sweeping services
• The potential for not completing the residential spring sweeping program, or completing at a lower quality standard, depending on winter traction control material utilization and sweeper fleet reliability was identified. In 2021, sweeping was not completed in four neighborhoods. 

Despite the changes to the sweeping budget, administration has continued to investigate alternatives to the street sweeping programs as per the KPMG recommendations. 

This survey represents the service level modification options that were developed. In this survey we will be asking you to rank the options in your level of preference so that we can understand the public’s priorities around street sweeping in Lethbridge. 

We recognize that COVID-19 and the public health restrictions have impacted our everyday activities. However, when thinking about these questions and your answers please think about your experiences before the pandemic.