About
Is this the RMWB's site?
No. YMMsnowjob.com is an independent community project, and it isn't affiliated with, endorsed by or operated by the Regional Municipality of Wood Buffalo.
The project
What this site does
This site tries to answer one question after every snowfall: when was my road last plowed? The records that would answer it are mostly not public, so the site gathers what is public, takes reports from residents and shows where the gaps are.
It does
- Gathers the RMWB's public road map, news releases, notices and snow policies, and Environment Canada's weather data.
- Sorts every record into one of five kinds of evidence and links it to where it came from.
- Takes anonymous road reports from residents, and a moderator checks each one before it appears.
- Puts RMWB statements next to the records, once an editor has checked each quote against its source.
It doesn't
- Track plows. We don't know where any plow is right now.
- Speak for the RMWB or take service requests. For those, contact the RMWB directly.
- Handle emergencies. If someone is in danger, call 911.
- Treat a missing record as proof that a road wasn't plowed.
How to read it
Five kinds of evidence
Every record carries one of five labels. An RMWB statement shows what the RMWB said, and a resident's report shows one road at one moment. When nobody has published a record for a road, it shows Unknown, and that means no record, not "not plowed".
- Confirmed service
- Officially reported service
- Resident observation
- Conflicting evidence
- Unknown
The jokes
About the commentary
The site has a sense of humour about snow removal. Every joke is labelled Commentary and comes with a line saying which fact it rests on. The jokes are about the process, never about plow operators, residents or individual staff, and a joke never claims something the records don't show.
How we work
Rules, contact and corrections
The rules we follow
- Facts come first, and every number links to its source and how it was counted.
- We fetch public data politely: plain requests that identify this site, cached, and never past a login or a CAPTCHA.
- An editor checks every RMWB quote against its source before it's published here.
- The RMWB can reply to any statement, and we publish the reply as written.
- Corrections are public and dated.
Contact, corrections and takedowns
To report a mistake, ask for a report or photo to come down, or send a reply from the RMWB, use the corrections form. A person reads every request. What we collect, and what we don't, is on the privacy page.