Montreal snow-removal operation after back-to-back storms to cost an estimated $50 million, a week away from being completed

Montreal’s mayor is estimating the cost of clearing the snow off the city’s roads and sidewalks after back-to-back storms will be around $50 million.

“A little more, a little less. We can be more accurate later. But the money has already been budgeted,” Mayor Valérie Plante told reporters Wednesday morning. The mayor was making her first public appearance since 75 centimetres of snow were dumped on Montreal in two storms, four days apart.

The City of Montreal says it’s completed 15 per cent of its snow-clearing operations, with the overall timeline still not exactly clear. City spokesperson Philippe Sabourin has maintained it would take “at least eight days.”

“We know that there is no way to achieve this in less than a week,” Sabourin said alongside Plante Wednesday. “You would like to have an end date, we understand that. The mayor says we are 15 per cent complete. I warn you: do not make statistical predictions at this time. We need to obtain more data to be able to make a projection over time.”

Sabourin says that’s because the city put an early emphasis on particularly challenging areas, meaning they require more work. Snow blowers are filling up 45-foot trucks every minute.

“There are districts that start with streets that have 75 centimetres to load. We could not last five centimetres more. We will lose them. So they do that as a priority,” Sabourin explained. “Others are on main arteries that were done at the end of the week with our special blitz. So, they do not have the same challenge. It is not the same execution time. And the data is truncated because of that. So, starting tomorrow, we will be able to project ourselves in time.”

“Clearing snow downtown, you can imagine that it has a complexity that may be different from another area where there may have been more or less snow,” added Mayor Plante.

Sabourin said each centimetre of snow amounts to about $1 million in removal costs. The city has about $200 million budgeted for snow operations, he said, adding that it will take at least another week to remove the snowfall.

Only half of Montreal’s sidewalks have been cleared. The city is urging drivers to exercise caution, noting that pedestrians will likely be walking in the streets.

“We ask you to be patient,” Plante said. “We want to tell you that everyone is working extremely hard.

“Everybody is working so hard at this point. And I think it’s important to look outside, it’s almost like it’s a choreography, it’s a ballet where you have a line up of trucks and all the materials moving forward very quickly and there’s people behind that working 24/7.

“What we want to avoid is any type of accident for the citizens but also for the workers.” 

CityNews spoke to Montrealers who have been struggling with the sidewalk situation.

“This is my first winter here in Canada, I’m a newcomer and it’s very difficult, with work, trying to deliver packages, it’s very difficult,” said Oussama Dellai.

“Sometimes you have to do a loop to try to get in. Or you have to walk on the snowbank.”

Added Montrealer Léopol Bourgeois: “It’s complicated, you have to be careful.”

“It’s a little dangerous to walk in the street,” said Ismael Ibrahim. “I know that all this snow will not disappear tomorrow morning, but I am sure that the city is doing everything possible.”

‘No parking’ signs have begun going up, making life difficult for drivers who need to dig out their vehicles.

“We can’t just like park there and have no problem to go out or in, so yeah, it’s really complicated,” said Claudia Lafrenière.

Heavy snowfall may have played a part in two incidents this week, including one that proved deadly. On Tuesday a 13-year-old girl was found unresponsive, buried in snow in a suburb on Montreal’s South Shore. That same day in Montreal, a 57-year-old man was found dead inside snow-covered vehicle with its engine running; his death was pronounced in hospital, and is under investigation.

“It’s a very tragic accident what happened,” said André Durocher, the director of community relations and road safety at CAA-Québec. “But imagine the number of situations where people also, what they’ll do, they’ll open the car, sit their kids in the back while they’re removing the car. These situations could potentially happen if people are not careful.

“Before you start your vehicle, all you have to do basically make sure that you clear the area where the exhaust system is. Because what happens, when everything being covered, it sort of creates an envelope and all the carbon and gas accumulates and gets seeping to the vehicle. And of course, that type of gas very often is odourless.”

As of Wednesday, here are some of Montreal neighbourhoods’ snow clearing progress:

• Ville-Marie: 11 per cent completed
• Montreal North: 17 per cent completed
• Villeray-Saint-Michel-Parc-Extension: 14 per cent completed
• Verdun: 19 per cent  completed
• Plateau-Mont-Royal: 15 per cent completed
• Outremont: 10 per cent completed

Montreal’s weather forecast predicts a mix of sun and cloud throughout the day with a high of -9°C, but wind chill will make it feel like -28°C this morning and -17°C this afternoon. Tonight, the temperature will drop to -13°C, with wind chills near -22°C.

Looking ahead, the weather will remain challenging, with Thursday bringing a 40 per cent chance of afternoon flurries and a high of -6°C. A colder night is expected with temperatures dipping to -11°C.

Friday is expected to be a mix of sun and clouds with a high of -8°C and low of -18°C.