Nearly 25% of Montreal’s snow-clearing equipment in bad condition
Posted January 28, 2026 10:45 am.
Last Updated January 28, 2026 11:55 am.
Nearly a quarter of Montreal’s snow-clearing equipment for roads and sidewalks are in bad condition, or completely nonfunctional.
During a media scrum on Wednesday morning Montreal Mayor Soraya Martinez Ferrada said they were surprised to discover this when taking office.
“I was surprised to see when we got here that almost 25 per cent of the equipment is either non-functional or we’re missing equipment. To address the issue of snow removal of the city or services that we’re giving to citizens, we have to do that diagnostic. We must know what the problem is to resolve it. Hopefully, next winter we’ll be in a better position to respond to the services. But I ask the citizens to also understand that we can’t pick up the snow before it gets on the streets. We have to give it some time. Montreal is a big city, it’s the second largest city in Canada and it comes with challenges and we’re addressing those challenges,” Martinez Ferrada said.
According to data obtained by TVA Nouvelles, the City of Montreal has 1,285 pieces of equipment for snow-clearing, and just over 300 of them are in bad or very bad condition.
Last year, nearly $45 million was allocated to fixing or replacing snow clearing equipment in the City of Montreal budget by Projet Montréal.
That was reduced to $18 million by the new Ensemble Montréal administration in their first budget unveiled two weeks ago.
“We’re very happy, we’re very proud of the budget that we hope that the municipal council will adopt today. Very clear priorities around housing, homelessness, essential services to citizens. We agree that there’s much to do but this is the first step to have a budget that respects the capacity of taxpayers to have the services that they deserve,” Martinez Ferrada added.
The City of Montreal is now on its fifth snow removal operation of the winter.
