The City of Saskatoon says it’s closely watching the costs and workmanship of contractors involved in the large-scale snow clearing effort that's underway and say they will only be paid for work that is done.

During Monday’s governance and priorities committee meeting, councillor Zach Jeffries thanked contractors for their hard work in helping to undertake a large snow clearing operation across the city.

Jeffries also asked about streets that were missed or areas where work was not complete.

City administration said the majority of the problems were due to the “blitz” approach the city took in trying to get as many contractors working as soon as possible.

“Some were new to clearing streets, or had more experience than others,” said Terry Schmidt, the city's transportation and construction manager.

Schmidt added the city didn’t have documented expectations for this type of operation since the city had never undertaken such a large snow removal effort.

“For the areas that were missed, of course, no hours were charged. We had some streets inadvertently overlooked and contractors sent back out to address those. So they will only be paid for hours the were actually worked.” Schmidt said.

He says the city is closely watching the money spent on the snow clearing.

“The administration estimates that this storm will overspend the overall snow and ice budget by about $10-million,” said Kari Smith, the city's finance director said during Monday's meeting.