While driving on Sherbrooke Street East, the municipal inspector takes a look at each perpendicular street, on the lookout for a suspect. Description: white, often as wide as high and cold. Very cold.
Faced with the proliferation of piles of snow illegally deposited by snow removers and residents in the street each winter, Mercier–Hochelaga-Maisonneuve has decided to authorize them, while regulating – and charging a price – the practice.
For the past two winters, the East Montreal borough has imposed a new permit on parking lot owners who must push their snow onto the street for lack of space to store it on their property. Even the individual boxes in front of the bungalows are affected. Cost for the latter: $50 per year. Commercial parking lots must pay according to the area of the parking lot to be cleared.
“There are people who ended up with mounds of snow until spring, there are cesspools that were blocked […] reserved lanes, pedestrian crossings [bloquées] “, testified Brigitte, inspector at the head of the anti-buttons operation. She refused to have her last name disclosed for fear of reprisals.
A century-old ban
The dumping of snow on public roads has been prohibited since 1901 in Montreal, “but everyone did it and in any way,” lamented the official. A widely tolerated practice. The new regulation “allows you to control how it is done”.
Among other conditions: no snow can be deposited after municipal loading, it must not block automobile or pedestrian traffic. More than 2,000 residents and businesses have obtained permits.
Hochelaga-Maisonneuve is not the first Montreal borough to implement such a permit system. Here, however, its implementation has raised an outcry: opposition politicians have denounced a new “snow tax”, while hundreds of residents have signed a petition to denounce the program.
Last winter, only one sector of the borough was concerned. The pilot project now covers about half of Mercier–Hochelaga-Maisonneuve. The entire borough will be covered as of next winter.
No fines yet
While touring the borough, Brigitte keeps her eyes peeled. She intervenes at an Ultramar service station which has pushed its snow to almost completely cover a fire hydrant. “I’m going to call to get it sorted out,” the manager swears to him, to whom the inspector gives her card. “Is there a fine that comes with that?” Not this time: the trade will walk away with a simple warning.
PHOTO CHARLES WILLIAM PELLETIER, SPECIAL COLLABORATION
This fire hydrant practically covered in snow exposes the offender, an Ultramar service station, to a fine; but since the beginning of the pilot project, the watchword among the civil servants is first of all to sensitize the residents.
Officials in Mercier–Hochelaga-Maisonneuve seem to prefer the gentle method: since the beginning of the pilot project last winter, no statement of offense has been issued to businesses or citizens for having dumped snow without permit. The borough wants to start by making residents aware of this new by-law, explains Vincent Fortin, in charge of communications, who is taking part in the patrol. Leaflets were distributed in the fall. Snow-related nuisance complaints are down, he said.
PHOTO CHARLES WILLIAM PELLETIER, SPECIAL COLLABORATION
A copy of the notices distributed by the agents of the borough.
But some are still at risk of incurring their wrath: while criss-crossing the streets of the borough, Brigitte keeps her eyes open to spot the machinery of a snow removal contractor who has repeatedly committed illegal dumping. “He does things really, really wrong,” she said. It blocks many reserved lanes on our territory. […] He exposes himself to a certain penalty by the next storm. “We are there,” said Mr. Fortin.
“A disguised tax”
The absence of a fine demonstrates the inapplicability of this by-law, according to the official opposition at City Hall.
The elected officials denounce the imposition of new fees for a practice – depositing snow in the street – which has always been tolerated.
“It’s a disguised tax, because there is no additional service that is offered,” argued Julien Hénault-Ratelle, who represents the residents of Tétreaultville. “Citizens are starting to have to pay for a service they already had before. »
Mr. Hénault-Ratelle’s constituents were targeted by the pilot project last winter. Only a small minority of them joined the program, he assured.
“It created dissatisfaction with the membership rate: some citizens paid for the permit, other neighbors did not. It caused neighborhood disputes ”since the borough does not punish offenders, he said. Moreover, since the borough “does not know where the snow comes from”, any fine would be very difficult to impose, unless an offender is caught in the act.