A snow plow was snubbed by the City of Montreal after using his snowblower to send snow from a sidewalk directly onto parked cars.
“It’s terrible, the lack of respect,” says Claudine Blanchette, who deplores that cars are damaged.
On January 20, Mr.me Blanchette caught a municipal employee in the act of clearing snow from the sidewalk near her home using a snowblower, the chimney pointing straight at the windows of the cars.
Screen capture from a video provided by Claudine Blanchette.
She was able to film the scene and send the video to the Log.
According to her, the caterpillars normally used to clear sidewalks cannot bypass a pole installed on a perpendicular street. A section of approximately 4 m must therefore be cleared using a snowblower.
Most of the employees plow the rest of the street using snowcats. However, some decide to use the snow blower there, when it is not necessary.
“The images of the video that you submit to our attention do not reflect the work that is expected of our employees,” said Hugo Bourgoin, spokesperson for the City of Montreal.
The borough of Ville-Marie intervened with the employee in question and a reminder was sent to all the blue collar workers concerned, he specified.
damaged cars
The painting of M’s carme Blanchette and that of its neighbours’ cars have been damaged several times in the last three years when snow plows from the City of Montreal have thrown snow from the sidewalk directly onto cars parked at the edge of the street.
“It makes little pimples, it’s as if we had rolled in the gravel. It’s really not a pleasant practice, ”explains the resident of rue La Fontaine.
“I park further away now. I just had my car repainted and I really don’t want to see [la souffleuse] close to it,” she says.