You could be liable for not taking care of the ice on your sidewalks and walkways

A local lawyer says it's worth the effort to clear your icy sidewalk. CTV News Edmonton's Connor Hogg explains why.

As Edmonton emerges from the recent deep freeze, the snow is starting to melt during the day but freezes again overnight, and that is causing issues.

The buildup of ice is making the sidewalks treacherous for people out walking.

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“It’s pretty icy and kind of hard to walk with kids,” said Miki, an Edmontonian who recently moved here.

Some people, like Terwillegar resident Rabab, have gotten out and started to clear the ice.

“We need to clean these areas so it’s safe for all the kids and all the people walking here,” she said.

“I just keep my path clean. That’s my duty, and that’s my responsibility.”

Not only can this help keep others safe, but it can help keep you safe if someone does slip, fall and hurt themselves.

“It’s incumbent on somebody who owns property to try and make his guests or invitees reasonably safe,” said William Horwitz, an injury lawyer.

“It can’t be 100 per cent, there’s no such thing, but reasonably safe, and if you don’t, you (face) consequences.”

The City of Edmonton says that residents should remove snow and ice from sidewalks and walkways “as soon as possible,” but doesn’t have a hard deadline for when that needs to be done.

“There was quite a famous case in Edmonton where a postman, I believe it was, walked up to a front door of a house to deliver something and he fell and injured himself terribly,” said Horwitz.

“It was at 7 a.m. in mid-winter, and the court said you can’t expect this old lady in the house to charge out at 6:30 or 7 in the morning.

“He lost his case, but if that had happened later in the day and there was no attempt to put down gravel or ice melt, he would have won it.”

If someone comes across a sidewalk that is unsafe because of ice and snow, the city encourages them to contact 3-1-1 and report it.

“Residents will have a reasonable amount of time to clear the sidewalk surrounding their properties,” said Tania Gonzales with the City of Edmonton. “Failure to do so could result in a $100 fine plus the cost of snow removal to the homeowner.

“Enforcement officers are reasonable in their enforcement approach and each complaint will be looked at individually before taking escalated enforcement action.”

Just because someone slips on ice and injures themselves doesn’t mean they would be successful in a lawsuit, though, according to Horowitz.

“You’re not expected to stand there with an ice chopper … an ice pick or anything, but you’ve got to take decent steps, ice melt, gravel, anything that sort of makes it better,” Horowitz said.

“I see a lot of downspouts (cases), where the water gushes out onto the sidewalk. Well, that is just stupid because, sooner or later, it’s going to freeze,” he added. “I’ve had three or four of those (cases) and all of them were no problem.”

People also have to be proactive in reporting incidents. The usual timeline to do so is within 21 days of the incident, unless you have “a very good excuse … you were stuck in hospital for three months or something,” according to Horowitz.

“Get off a letter to the City of Edmonton law department … don’t comment and accuse anybody of anything,” he said. “Just say I fell on the icy sidewalk in this particular street on that particular day.”

There is also a responsibility on the person injured to mitigate the lasting damage to themselves.

“There is, in law, a duty to mitigate, so that if someone is badly hurt, that person is expected to take reasonable steps to ameliorate his or her position, like physiotherapy, like surgery, and if you don’t, it will spoil your case by a large percentage,” Horowitz said.

Another issue that can make sidewalk cases difficult is conflicting provisions within the Municipal Government Act, he added.

“One says that it’s incumbent on a municipality to keep its things in a reasonable state of repair, and another one says it’s not liable for not inspecting,” Horowitz said. “They do seem to clash, and it’s an ongoing nightmare.”

The City of Edmonton has free, public sandboxes people can go to to get dry sand to spread on sidewalks and walkways.

With files from CTV News Edmonton’s Connor Hogg