Snow Removal Questions and Answers

One doesn’t think how customs that we take for granted are so completely foreign to those in other climates. A recent somment about snow removal caused an Australian blogger to pose some questions.

I’ve never heard of ‘snow removal’ before so have questions…..where does the truck take the snow to….what’s it used for….and how do they load it on to the truck? Does this only happen in your city or is it a national service. Do home owners and businesses pay or is it part of the yearly rate charge

You’ll have to do a post explaining for us warm climate colonials 😊 

And so, I shall explain although this may be redundant for many. 

You must understand that we had a big snowfall on November 09/25, and snow is still with us on March 12. It doesn’t always come and stick that early in November. Some years, it doesn’t stick until December and even late December. It always lasts until well into March and even April in some years. Indeed, I once removed snow from over the flower bed in April to see that tulips were already growing under there.

That is the background, so here we go with your questions.

where does the truck take the snow to….

I don’t know where they take it exactly, but I expect to an empty lot or field somewhere or other. There is one such empty lot near us where they dumped quite a bit of snow, but I haven’t seen them do it, and there have to be more dump sites.

what’s it used for

It is useless stuff, which is why it is removed from forever clogging roads and parking lots. 

 how do they load it on to the truck?

There are dedicated snow blowing machines that blow the snow into a truck travelling alongside the snow blower. When that truck is full, it goes off to dump the snow, and the next truck in line takes its place.

Sue reminded me that I did a whole post with steps, photos and even a little video clip a few years ago. I copied the above photo from there, but you really should go there for a fuller explanation as it was a pretty full descriptive post. (The AC is On: Winter Excitement in The Great White North)

 Does this only happen in your city or is it a national service

Communities make their own contracts and arrangement, and we pay for it through our property taxes. Bear in mind that the need for snow removal does vary in this big country. While we still needed the service in our city, in the other end of the province where we used to live, it was not quite as big of an issue as it is here in Eastern Ontario. The west coast of Canada doesn't really require the service at all. There are palm trees in British Columbia, believe it or not. Of course, snow is a concern in most of Canada.

On private property, it is up to homeowners to clear their own driveways and walkways as they see fit. Some people shovel manually. Others have their own little snowblowers. Many of us hire a contractor for the winter. We have paid almost $500 (with tax) to have our driveway cleared this winter. If the accumulation is a couple of centimeters, they will come by and do their thing. We take care of lesser amounts on our own.

A kind neighbour used her personal snowblower to help us out many years ago before snow blowing businesses became common. This was a major storm, up to her knees or higher. They aren't all like this.

The snow was very high that year, well over my 6' frame in 2008. I think that was the year when the tulips started sprouting under the snow because the mound remained well in April. It isn't always this deep, but it was again last year.

Just this year, I posted a picture of our contractor blowing our driveway. They blow it from the driveway onto the lawn. The pile on the lawn gets pretty high, so it takes some time for it to melt away.