Snow removal in C.D.N.-N.D.G. is ‘a disgrace’
On the snow-packed sidewalk of Montclair Ave. in Notre-Damede-Grâce, Ashley Baker slogged from driveway to front walkway with 8-month-old Max in a baby seat Thursday, cautiously navigating through the snowbanks. The journey of 10 metres took a while.
“After this past snowstorm, it’s been particularly awful,” she said. “They haven’t even plowed the streets yet. … There’s a ridge of snow up the middle, so it looks like they just let the cars plow it.”
With snow piled high on both sides, her neighbour Victor Langdon wasn’t able to get out of his driveway because the roadway was too narrow. It has been like that for a week, he said.
“It’s never perfect, but it’s never like this,” said Langdon, a 30-year-resident of Montclair Ave. “This is crazy that we have to wait this long.”
Residents described the situation as “a disaster” and “a disgrace” on social media.
Residents have reason to feel hard done by. Of Montreal’s 19 boroughs, Côte-des-Neiges—Notre-Dame-de-Grâce has seen the least amount of snow removed since the snow started falling on Thursday of last week and continued in increments until Tuesday, dropping 27 centimetres on the city.
Only 50 per cent of the snow was removed in the borough as of 9 p.m. Thursday, according to the city’s snow-clearing tracker.
Meanwhile, boroughs like Anjou and Saint-Léonard have managed to take away 95 and 96 per cent of their snowfall, respectively.
In other boroughs, like the SudOuest (56 per cent) and Lachine (62 per cent), residents were also incensed.
Côte-des-Neiges—Notre-Damede-Grâce borough Mayor Sue Montgomery said she understands residents’ frustrations. Snow clearing in the borough during heavy precipitation at Christmas went smoothly, she noted, in part because there was less traffic.
But this week’s operations were hit by a confluence of problems: two of the city-owned snow blowers broke down; two of the three snow dumps used by dump trucks from the borough are located near the under-construction Turcot Interchange and plagued by traffic jams, slowing operations; snow removal that was supposed to start Monday was put off because there was another snowfall.
Then, as temperatures shifted late Wednesday, snow clearing teams were shifted to spreading abrasives instead.
“I think it’s just that every operation is different and it depends on what we get in-between, and how much comes down,” said Montgomery, a former journalist at the Montreal Gazette. As a newly elected borough mayor, she said she’s on a steep learning curve and is asking a lot of questions in order to improve services in the future, and asked residents to be patient.
It takes less time to clean boroughs like Anjou because they’re smaller, said Jean-François Parenteau, the city’s executive committee member responsible for citizen services, while those with a large industrial base like Saint-Laurent mean snowplows can blow snow directly onto properties instead of into dump trucks, a much quicker process. Densely populated and congested boroughs like Ville Marie, Côte-des-Neiges—NotreDame-de-Grâce and Verdun are more complicated, he said.
The city’s new snow policy calls for all boroughs to receive equal treatment, Parenteau said.
It also calls for sidewalks to be cleared as soon as 2.5 centimetres of snow has fallen.
“If it’s not done, there is a problem,” he said. “It’s very important for citizens to call (city public information line) 311 to make complaints. We will check all complaints personally.”
The city generally starts removing snow once 10 to 13 centimetres has fallen, and expects to have it all cleared in four to five days, a rapid response compared to most other large North American cities, Parenteau said. Montgomery noted, however, that many workers would have to take a mandatory break Friday because of the long hours they logged in the last week.
Montreal city spokesman Philippe Sabourin promised crews were hard at work and 80 per cent of the city’s snow should be cleared by Friday, when rain is forecast, followed by freezing temperatures of –11 C overnight, with 10 to 20 centimetres more snow on Saturday. The city will be ready for the next barrage, Sabourin said.
Based on the last week’s example, Ashley Baker of Montclair Ave. has her doubts.
“I’m afraid it’s going to get really cold, and then everything is going to turn into blocks of ice,” she said. “Then things are going to be incredibly bad.”