In Montreal, we don’t mess around with winter. When a storm hits the metropolis, the City brings out the heavy artillery to wage war on the snowflakes and tackle the icy sidewalks. It’s a race against time to clear the sidewalks and streets and, as quickly as possible, make this snow disappear. But this obsession, in addition to being very expensive, is destructive for the environment. Should we clear less snow?
Last December, a video showing the major maneuvers of snowblowers and heavy machinery on a Montreal street went viral on Facebook. The time-lapse images showed a perfectly synchronized choreography of great efficiency. It’s hard not to smile when reading the admiring comments from Internet users around the world on the performance of snow plows when we know that in Montreal, city dwellers are quick to complain about the maintenance of streets and sidewalks.
Montrealers expect that the snow will not hinder their travel, says the former mayor of Plateau-Mont-Royal who became a host at 98.5, Luc Ferrandez. “The same stories come up again and again from even intelligent people. According to them, a street should be like a hospital or shopping center corridor. Anyone between the ages of 6 months and 99 years old should be able to walk the day after an ice storm without any problems. »
However, snow removal operations are complex. Between clearing, spreading salt and abrasives, loading snow and the vagaries of the weather, coordination is not always easy. And these operations are expensive. In 2023, the snow removal bill amounted to some $245 million, says the City. But this amount does not include indirect costs such as damage caused to street furniture, wear and tear on underground infrastructure attributable to road salt and the treatment of wastewater linked to the snow collected.
Resisting criticism
Snow removal activities are so expensive that, in 2009, Luc Ferrandez decreed that, as a cost-saving measure, the loading of snow would be reduced in the Plateau. It hurt him. “This is perhaps one of the deepest crises I have experienced in terms of rejection of my policies,” he relates. “I was walking in the street, I was stopped by people who told me that it didn’t make sense. It was surprisingly aggressive. »
However, this did not prevent him from being re-elected twice, he points out.
All elected officials have borne the brunt of the wrath of citizens, taxpayers, faced with icy sidewalks and mounds of snow. But the former mayor of Rosemont–La Petite-Patrie and columnist for Duty, François William Croteau, believes that there is a certain distortion between the demands of citizens and the echo of the media and social networks. “There is verbal arrogance between politicians and journalists,” says the former elected official. “Some media easily fall into disaster. Do Montrealers really expect so many snow removal services? ” he asks.
A Léger survey commissioned by the City of Montreal last year showed that Montrealers were mostly satisfied with snow removal in Montreal, he recalls.
Mayor of the Verdun borough from 2013 to 2021, Jean-François Parenteau inherited the snow removal file in 2017. He believes it will be difficult to lower snow removal standards. The City’s performance may have improved over the years, but climate change, which causes repeated mild spells, complicates the task, he emphasizes. “There was a winter where there were differences of twelve degrees in the same day. What do you want me to do? People have expectations, but I think we’re going to have to stop promising the moon when it’s impossible. You have to be honest and explain the mechanics. »
Removing snow to allow cars to park on the side of the street without constraint is a very costly choice, which Montrealers must be reminded of, believes Luc Ferrandez, who doubts that Montrealers are ready to sacrifice this privilege. “We are infantile, superficial, demanding and unrealistic,” he says.
Rethink snow removal
For his part, François William Croteau believes that several aspects of snow removal could be reviewed. The safety of sidewalks cannot be called into question, but perhaps there is no need to be in such a hurry to load snow. The City begins loading operations when 10 to 15 cm of snow has accumulated on the ground. “Why isn’t it 16cm or 20cm?” And should we charge it everywhere? Couldn’t we send snow onto private land as is done in all the suburbs of Quebec? ” he asks. On the roadway, the use of salt and abrasives, which cause significant environmental damage and contribute to the creation of potholes, could be limited to intersections, according to him.
Jean-François Parenteau believes that it would be possible to reduce snow removal costs by better planning urban developments based on winter challenges. Overhangs in sidewalks and cycle paths, designed primarily for the summer months, cause snow removal costs to skyrocket. Luc Ferrandez does not share this opinion. “It’s not true that we’re going to make sidewalks that will look like airport runways because it’s easier to clear snow. On the contrary, we must plant trees. We are not going to structure our world based on snow removal, while we refuse to make the real decisions that would have an impact on snow removal, that is to say, on-street parking. »
Other cities in the world receive a lot of snow, but few do as much as Montreal, notes Olivier Legault, co-founder of the Winter Laboratory in Montreal. According to him, the City could consider loading less significant quantities of snow on certain streets. And it could require more involvement from citizens.
He cites the case of the city of Sapporo in Japan, which has 1.9 million inhabitants and which receives more than 400 cm of snow, but also a lot of rain. “They have a snow removal system that relies heavily on citizen involvement. Citizens must clear the sidewalk in front of their residence, as is the case in Calgary and Boston. Here in Montreal, we are spoiled rotten. We’re going to tell each other. »
Montrealers should better adapt their travel to climatic conditions rather than expecting to be able to act as if snow did not exist, argues François William Croteau. In 2009, the city’s snow removal manager, Marcel Tremblay, suggested that Montrealers equip themselves with crampons to travel on slippery sidewalks. The declaration, seen as an admission of powerlessness, caused a scandal. A few weeks later, his brother Gérald Tremblay took this file out of his hands.
But Luc Ferrandez and François William Croteau agree that, deep down, Marcel Tremblay was not wrong.