Winter Maintenance

Snow plow routes

Snow plow routes have a start and end location. Your street may be at the beginning, middle or end of the snow plow route. If the storm is bad, it may take up to 8 hours to complete.

This will explain the timeframe your street is plowed. Different plows have different routes; your street may be on a different route than the street next to yours.

Driveways

Road snow pushed by the plow into your driveway cannot be avoided. The Township will not remove snow from your driveway. If you have a medical condition, please contact family, neighbours or contractors that can help with snow removal.

When you are removing snow from your entrance, place it on the side near the curb. This way the plow will not push it back into your driveway.

Placing snow or ice on a roadway is a violation under the Highway Traffic Act. If you place snow on the roadway, shoulder or sidewalk, it can delay snow removal operations. Also, it can cause unsafe conditions for other vehicles and pedestrians.

Cul-de-sac and dead-ends

If you live on a cul-de-sac, dead end court or at a 90-degree bend in the road, the plow will only clear the central lanes. The plow can't move properly within a cul-de-sac to clear snow effectively. An appropriate type of machine will follow-up later to clear snow from your area.

Municipal parking lots

Our parking lots are plowed as soon as possible by Township staff and contractors. Roadways are a priority over parking lots.

Significant Weather Event

As per the Ontario Municipal Act, a municipality may declare a significant weather event when a weather hazard, either forecasted or occurring, has the potential to pose a significant danger to users of the roadways in which they have authority.

A “Significant Weather Event” (SWE) is defined as an approaching or occurring weather hazard with the potential to pose a significant danger to users of the highways within a municipality. Weather Hazards are determined by Environment Canada as meeting the criteria for the issuance of an alert under its Public Weather Alerting Program.

This declaration suspends the standard timelines required for municipalities to meet their winter maintenance objectives until the municipality declares the significant weather event has ended. Once a SWE has ended, standard timelines for winter maintenance activities will begin.

The intent of a declaration is to notify the public that due to the current weather conditions, caution is to be exercised when travelling on the Township’s streets and sidewalks, and that it may take longer than usual to restore them to the normal condition.