The traffic ticket season officially opens this Monday in Montreal, as parking bans for street maintenance once again come into effect in the majority of boroughs. The City will take the opportunity to launch its major spring cleaning operation.
“We will really have to monitor the signs from Monday and avoid parking on one side of the street depending on the display. We find it important to remember this,” says the administrative spokesperson for the Montreal administration, Philippe Sabourin.
Year after year, unauthorized parking is the most frequent offense on the streets of the metropolis. These fines, which amount to $90 including court fees, represent a third of all tickets issued by municipal agents. “There is no grace period, so you will have to be very vigilant to avoid a fine,” insists Mr. Sabourin.
All of this will coincide with the launch of spring cleaning, which begins a little earlier this year due to mild weather conditions and little snowfall. In Ville-Marie, certain main roads as well as parks have already started to be cleaned.
In total, “600 pieces of equipment, including tankers, sidewalk washers, street brooms and vacuum cleaners, will be put into operation on Monday,” explains the spokesperson. The operation will take place over a period of four to six weeks and will cost taxpayers 50 million.
From winter to summer
To date, approximately 75% of the City’s cleaning equipment has been “converted” from winter to summer mode. The devices used to clear snow from the road are in fact transformed for the summer: the shovel is removed, then a nozzle system is added with a tank at the rear.
“We always keep a little winter equipment in reserve, in case there is still snow or ice in April, like last year. This balance is crucial if we fall back into a winter situation,” notes Mr. Sabourin on this subject.
Only two snow loads were decreed this season by the City, one in December and the other in January, which allowed the teams to “focus more on repairing potholes, in particular,” said the publicist. However, he recalls that there have been numerous abrasive spreading works due to the fluctuation of the weather. Typically, a loading operation costs the City $1 million per inch of snow collected.
Around 150,000 tonnes of small rocks will have to be collected by blue-collar workers over the coming weeks. For the rest, around 60% of the waste collected comes from the fast food industry and 30% from cigarette butts. On average, each cigarette butt pollutes up to 500 liters of water.
The Montreal model is rather unique in this area in Quebec, at least with regard to parking during spring cleaning. In Quebec, street cleaning is done during special operations – such as spring cleaning – during which temporary signage is used to inform citizens of a parking ban.
With the collaboration of Pierre-André Normandin, The Press