The Minister of Transportation says his department still isn’t where it wants to be in having the staff in place to provide promised 24-hour snowclearing in some areas.

Barry Petten says challenges remain in recruiting the operators necessary in some regions.

That’s why they’ve had to employ different tactics to supply the service.

“In areas where we were short on getting operators, we’ve used a combination of overtime and changes (to) different shifts and moving people around, so it’s probably not where I’d like it to be” says Petten, “but it’s much improved to what it was in other years.” He says some regions are now fully staffed including the west coast and Stephenville area, and areas where they are not fully staffed they’re taking a more creative approach to ensuring the service is provided.