RED DEER -- As winter approaches, Red Deer City Council is taking a closer look at how the city's snow removal efforts did last year.

"We've seen substantial improvements on major arterials, on transit nearing, on green route clearing, on sidewalks and trails," said Red Deer Mayor Tara Veer.

According to the IPSOS Reid Citizen Satisfaction Survey done in May of this year, Red Deer residents gave snow removal a grade 61 per cent. This is down three per cent from last year, and 10 per cent down from 2016.

One of the areas city council acknowledges needs improvement are grey routes. These are roads in residential neighbourhoods. On Monday, city council directed administration to continue to find workable improvements for these areas.

"We just gave an indication to administration that we need to see some phased in or some feasible options for phasing in service level improvements on grey routes," said Veer.

These changes, if any, will be brought forward during 2020 budget deliberations.

One of the biggest challenges for snow removal in Red Deer is residents not moving their vehicles off streets, according to the City.

"One thing we consistently hear from Red Deerians is that they want more timely and efficient snow clearing or snow removal and snow plowing but in order for the system to be timely and efficient we need everyone as much as possible to participate in moving their vehicle," said Veer.

In 2018, the city handed out 2, 433 tickets for residents parking on streets during snow removal operations, of those 2, 279 tickets were handed out on grey routes. This is a decrease from the total 3, 281 tickets handed out in 2017. The city is planning to increase communications with residents to ensure vehicles are not in the way.

"This year we're doing more work around community engagement, asking people how can we help you and what do we need to do," said City of Red Deer Director of Development Services Kelly Kloss.

"[The communications team] specifically want to engage with Red Deerians and to very intentionally seek out public feedback; what's working well, what should we be doing more of and whats not working well so we can take an honest look at the areas we need to improve," said Veer.

The use of calcium chloride for de-icing and traction was also discussed at Red Deer city council. On Oct. 8, Edmonton's city council decided to ban the use of the chemical following complaints it was damaging cars and surrounding ecosystems. However, Red Deer will still be using it in the upcoming snow season.

"We are not planning to move away from it, again we try to use it sparingly. We look at what components go into it, including those rust inhibitors in order to make sure we balance it," said Kloss.

Red Deer has budgeted $5.4 million for snow removal in 2019, so far the city has used around 51 per cent of the funds.