Sarnia's public works crews are now provincially mandated to have the sidewalks they maintain cleared in 48 hours -- but, how they're going to do it still needs to be figured out.
City council turned down a recommendation on Monday that would have protected the city against liability by reducing the area maintained -- by about 30 kilometres.
Councillor Bev MacDougall couldn't support the service cut.
"We we're supposed to be making an accessible community and making it more friendly for people to be out and about and now what I'm seeing is that we're shrinking back because of the minimum maintenance standards," said MacDougall . "For all we've done, now we're undoing it. I can't support this. This doesn't seem to me a fair way to go at all for the people that we're here to serve."
Currently the city clears 152 kilometres of the city's 330 kilometres of sidewalks within 48 to 72 hours, but it can take longer in a heavier snowfall.
"This isn't on staff, this is just a lousy situation to be put in," said councillor Brian White.
Staff have been asked to come back with new options and cost estimates to maintain the current level of service.
The new rules came into effect this past June.