Obviously a touchy subject. It is not the road department's fault. They have the know how of what needs to be done and how to do it but no money. It is 100% council's fault. They have not had to clear snow in the past so they have not built it into the budgets and they know they will eventually get caught with their pants down like they did this year. We have not had a winter like this in a long time. The alternative is to have tons of equipment and labour sitting around every year that is not like this one. Is that prudent? Probably not but in years like this most people would say it is worth it. And as said above, unless you actually remove it like they do in Montreal it makes getting out of your driveway impossible. They spend $128 million to do snow removal each year:
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Snow_removal that is a lot of other stuff that won't get done in Calgary. I'm not saying it shouldn't but that is a lot of cash to set aside for something that is needed every 5-6 years.
I know I am glad I have a truck but I have a lot of sympathy for those that can't get around as easy. People like Flames Gimp have it even worse, as do the elderly.
I know we had a case where the windrows, what a pile of snow on the road is called, and an elderly lady had to climb three feet of glazed snow and obviously it did not turn out well. She broke a bunch of stuff but suing the City is almost impossible in situations like that. The courts can't tell the City how to spend its money, is what it comes down to. Most of the time this is a good policy, even if it does not feel like it.