Bancroft targets Minimum Maintenance Standards for winter roads to cut costs

December 2, 2025

By Nate Smelle

At their recent meeting held Nov. 25 Bancroft’s committee of the whole received a report from manager of infrastructure and capital projects, Jake Krupa, on the Minimum Maintenance Standards at the core of the town’s new winter roads maintenance policy. After years of exceeding provincial maintenance standards, this policiy shift signifies a deliberate step back toward basic compliance-level operations—particularly on weekends—in an effort to reduce labour, overtime, and fuel expenses.

Before Krupa began his presentation, Mayor Paul Jenkins provided context for the report by reminding the committee that Bancroft has historically operated “far in excess” of the Minimum Maintenance Standards. This is something he described as a point of local pride, but also a budgetary strain.

“We’ve already had our first snowfall,” Jenkins noted. “We’ve already passed the minimum maintenance standard bylaw, some time ago. I guess the one comment which relates to the budget we’re preparing is that we were far in excess of our minimum maintenance standards in the past historically.”

Jenkins contrasted Bancroft’s approach with the frustrations expressed in neighbouring communities during the recent snowstorm. He added that the town continues to meet or exceed the standards, “maybe not to the same degree that we were in the past—but that’s the way it goes.”

“Unlike a lot of municipalities … you will have seen a number of comments in other municipalities where people were basically not happy over various aspects. One of the ones that really popped up was plowing of gravel roads, when frost sets in… We have made a conscious decision this year to get closer to the minimum maintenance standards—for cost saving reasons, etc.”

Krupa opened his presentation by explaining why a review of the MMS was timely and necessary.

“Winter operations are underway for the season, and our new winter maintenance policy is in effect,” he said. “A review of the minimum maintenance standards would be beneficial for everybody to find efficiencies in our snow removal operations.”

At the centre of the update is a shift in how the town handles weekend call-ins. Under the new policy, Bancroft will follow the MMS response timelines rather than immediately dispatching plows at the first sign of accumulation. This approach, Krupa said, will “reduce labour and fuel costs” without compromising the town’s legal protections under the provincial regulation.

The MMS were introduced in 2002, he explained, to clarify the statutory defence available to municipalities under the Municipal Act. The standards do not dictate specific methods or materials, but instead define target outcomes—such as maximum allowable snow accumulation or minimum inspection frequency—that municipalities must meet to avoid liability.

Krupa said the regulation categorizes Ontario roads into six classes based on traffic volume and speed limits. A Class 1 road—like Hwy 401—receives the highest level of service; whereas a Class 6 receives the lowest, he said. Bancroft has a full spectrum of road conditions within its boundaries, according to Krupa, but the majority fall toward the lower and more rural end of the classification system.

“We have one Class 4, which is Detlor. All the Class 3 that are located in our municipality are the connecting link,” Krupa explained. “And then the second most we have is Class 6. So basically, we deal mainly with Class 5 and Class 6 roads with our operations.”

The town also designates Class 6B roads, such as Eagle’s Nest Park Road, which receive no winter maintenance, he added.

Provincial standards specify how often each class of road must be patrolled:

• Class 3: every seven days

• Class 4: every 14 days

• Class 5: every 30 days

• Class 6: every 60 days

Krupa was quick to point out that Bancroft surpasses these requirements.

“Yeah, we exceed these numbers,” he said. “We use a digital tracking system—MESH—to record our road patrols. This system time stamps when a road is patrolled and completed; and it notifies us when roads are due for patrolling to ensure we are complying with the minimum maintenance standards.”

Town general manager Andra Kauffeldt further clarified what constitutes a road patrol:

“A road patrol is a dedicated drive by, where the operator is looking for hazards. Are there potholes? Are there trees on the road? Are there missing signs? Is there ice or snow accumulation?”

While the MMS allows for weekly, monthly, or even bi-monthly patrols depending on road class, Bancroft has historically gone far beyond that.

“We do multiple patrols a week on our highway,” Kauffeldt said. “We patrol weekly on all of our roads. So please don’t think that nobody’s looking at a Class 5 or Class 6 road for two months.”

Until this year, she said operations staff were conducting two patrols per day—one in the morning and one at night—even when overtime was required. Under the new policy, this schedule has been scaled back.

One of the most significant changes outlined in Krupa’s report involves weekend snow removal. Instead of automatically calling in staff when snow begins accumulating, he said the town will now follow MMS-defined depth thresholds before deploying equipment.

“These are the guidelines being used for our weekend snow plowing,” Krupa said. “Plows are not being deployed until this depth of snow has fallen. If these depths are not reached, the roads will be cleared during the next regular shift.”

The thresholds vary by road class, but the overall intent is clear: unless provincial minimums are exceeded, removal will wait until Monday morning.

“So if we don’t accumulate that much snow over the weekend, our roads will remain unploughed until Monday morning, because we haven’t broken that threshold,” Krupa said. “That’s where we’re going to get the savings. We’re not the only municipality that’s doing that. All the surrounding municipalities are doing it as well.”

Krupa’s report also outlined the MMS for sidewalk maintenance. Under the regulation, he said municipalities must:

• Reduce sidewalk snow to eight centimetres or less within 48 hours after accumulation ends

• Maintain a minimum sidewalk width of one metre

• Monitor weather conditions in the 24 hours before any alleged ice formation

• Treat icy sidewalks within 48 hours if there is a “substantial probability” of formation

These standards, Krupa said, are intended to ensure municipalities maintain predictable, defensible practices—even during resource-strained winter weekends.

Another key tool available to municipalities is the ability to declare a Significant Weather Event. Such a declaration temporarily relaxes MMS response deadlines until the event has passed.

According to the report a declaration can be communicated through:

1. The municipal website

2. Social media

3. Media releases

4. Police notification

5. Other council-approved methods

After outlining the weekend changes, Jenkins asked how weekday operations will be affected. Krupa responded that Monday-to-Friday service will continue to exceed MMS requirements.

“During the week with staff on, we’re doing road maintenance all the time. We go in, we clean the roads up, we sand, we do all that… That’s where we exceed the minimum standards, Monday to Friday,” he said.

“If we get two inches of snow, we’re going out to plow it during regular hours, so there’s no overtime,” Krupa continued. “It’s just standard maintenance for our roads.”

Kauffeldt added that overnight coverage for the connecting link—a critical transportation corridor—will remain unchanged.

“We have dedicated overnight connecting link operators who work overnight,” she said. “So there’s always someone at work in that 12-hour period. If the highway needs maintenance, we always have somebody on paid work assigned to those hours… We’re not required to. We could allow it to accumulate to eight centimetres. That creates other operational issues though.”

While council members largely agreed with the need for cost savings, the weekend reductions raised practical concerns—especially for residents living on steep rural roads.

“Some of the back streets, like Cleak Street… John Street, those hills are now not being [covered],” Krupa acknowledged. “They were covered under their call-ins on the weekends, which we don’t have now.”

The same applies to roads outside town limits, such as Holland Lake Road and Clark Lake Road, which may become treacherous if weekend accumulations remain below the plowing threshold, he said.

“That’s where we get into the whole, ‘okay, are we calling in workers on the weekends?’” Krupa said. “This is something that we’re doing to try and save costs, but we’re still within our [minimum maintenance standards]. Our liability is still protected.”

Deputy Mayor Wayne Wiggins voiced his support for fiscal responsibility but also stressed the importance of safety.

“Cost is very important, especially in today’s economy,” he said. “But the other thing is safety, too. We have residents that live out on some of these hills… They do need to be considered in the future.”

Jenkins agreed, noting that the town will use this winter as a pilot year.

“This will be a good test this year,” he said. “When you look at the amount of dollars that we were spending going over and above where we needed to go… Monday to Friday, where most people work, they’re still being covered by the regular maintenance program. So this is predominantly a weekend cutback.”