With snow piling up, Montreal abandons clearing operation and moves into snow loading

There’s so much snow piling up on Montreal’s streets and sidewalks that the city is pausing its snow-clearing operation and moving straight into snow loading.

It’s part of the “exceptional situation” Montreal is dealing with and having to adapt to, with flurries still falling on Monday.

“We must not do things as we usually do,” said city spokesperson Philippe Sabourin.

After the city received about 74 centimetres of snow in five days – nearly half an entire winter’s average snowfall – Sabourin says the city abandoned snow clearing as of Monday morning.

READ: Record 40 cm snowfall for Montreal amid second major storm, blowing snow advisory continues

He expects eight days of snow loading involving 2,500 vehicles and 3,000 workers.

“We ask everyone to watch the road signs,” he told reporters. “We will collect the snow as soon as we can. We are starting, we are already hard at work. Some started this morning. The others will be added later.”

Sabourin said some of the workforce was on holiday Monday, which is Family Day in parts of Canada, though not in Quebec.

“This is going to be a challenge. We’re going to have to pull together. We have a lot of work to do and we’re going to need everyone’s cooperation.”

It’s also led to a suspension of garbage, recycling and compost pickup for a week.

“We also ask you, and this is last-minute information, to go and collect your bin if you put it out this morning,” Sabourin said. “Initially, we tried to maintain the collection service. It’s not practical. I’ve seen them on the ground, it’s extremely difficult for our employees and it’s often the private sector that has to collect them.”

Sabourin says the City of Montreal has been doing what it can to clear the roads after last week’s first snowstorm, and that 1,000 kilometres of roads were cleared in the past 36 hours. Montreal’s entire network is about 11,000 kilometres.

“For the streets, the good news is that we have saved most of the streets,” Sabourin said Monday. “So there are a few streets where you can’t drive, but they are a minority. So overall, the streets have been saved.”

But he says snow clearing of sidewalks was becoming “concerning.”

“We have about 50 per cent of the sidewalks in Montreal that are not usable,” he said. “Our sidewalks, we lost them. In fact, what’s happening is a physical issue: the plow can no longer pack the snow on one side or the other. So the only way to do it is to blow that snow.”

That contributed to the decision to begin loading snow.

Sabourin is urging Montrealers to stay indoors when possible, move their cars, and take public transportation if going outside is necessary.

“For the rest of the week, moving around by vehicle, it’s going to be difficult,” he said. “Especially for parking, public transportation, at least for the first few days this week, it’s going to be a good idea.”

The City of Montreal spokesperson is also asking everyone to lend a helping hand, such as clearing neighbours’ front entrances.

“It’s not finished yet because as you can see, there’s strong winds that bring the snow from the roof on our street and sidewalks. So it’s going to be a huge challenge for everyone, for our crew, for our citizens.”