Provincial Auditor Tara Clemett has outlined three ways for the Ministry of Highways to improve its winter maintenance of the over 26,000 kilometres of highways in the province.

Clemett audited the Ministry over 15 months and found that the Ministry had effective processes, except in the following areas, to conduct winter maintenance on provincial highways in Saskatchewan.

The first recommendation is that the Ministry track whether winter maintenance equipment operators meet work scheduling safety requirements, which is ten consecutive hours of rest every 24 hours, or waive the mandatory rest period.

“Equipment operators who waive mandatory 10-hour rest periods may become fatigued, increasing the risk of causing collisions,” Clemett said in the report. “Tracking is imperative for the safety of the operators and others on provincial highways.”

The next recommendation is for the Ministry to clarify the terminology on the Highway Hotline to allow for consistent and informed decisions about winter driving conditions on highways.

“Unclear terminology could result in drivers misinterpreting information on the Highway Hotline, which could cause them to decide to travel on a highway when it may not be safe to do so,” the report read.

The last recommendation is to set a timeframe for reporting instances the Ministry is not meeting service level expectations (not clearing snow within six hours of a snowstorm ending) and to require managers to review these reports.

“Without timely reporting of exceptions to levels of service, the Ministry cannot make timely adjustments to help ensure it meets its expectations for levels of service in the future,” Clemett concluded. “This means provincial highways may not be cleared of snow as quickly as they should be.”

These recommendations are part of the 2023 Provincial Auditor report, which also saw Clemett recommend to the Ministry of Social Services to improve the SIS program.