FAQ

The City’s snow plan is designed to gradually clear all streets. As one can easily imagine, not all streets can be tackled at the same time due to the limited number of snow removal equipment available to us. In practice, priorities must be set to clear the streets efficiently and allow smooth traffic flow.

The main arteries are the first cleared and then the secondary arteries and collector streets, as well as the sidewalks, pathways, and bus stops that are located there. Residential streets and parking lots of municipal facilities (as well as their sidewalks, pathways and bus stops) will follow.

Generally, the City can complete street clearance operations:

• For an accumulation of 15 cm or less of snow: about 4 hours;
• For an accumulation of 15 cm or more of snow: about 8 hours.

When it snows, the primary responsibility of Dollard-des-Ormeaux Public Works is to clear the streets and sidewalks as quickly as possible in order to make them as safe as possible for motorists and pedestrians.

We push the snow to both sides of the street, leaving a snow bank in front of parking entrances, the size of which may vary depending on the amount of precipitation received (see paragraph 4.2 of By-law R-2007-033). After we have cleared the snow, it is the responsibility of each resident to remove the snow in front of their driveway and pile it on their private property.

At the beginning of each winter season, the City meets with private snow removal contractors. During this meeting, it is mentioned that the City may clear the streets after the contractor has already visited their customer. In this situation, it was mentioned that it is up to the citizen to contact their contractor to come back and clear their driveway.

Your contractor should coordinate snow removal from your driveway with the City’s operations. Your contractor may need to make several passes to clear your driveway.

The city has been meeting with private snow removal contractors every fall since 2019 to present the tools available for effective coordination of snow removal operations. In particular, the City is e-mailing contractors authorized to perform snow removal to announce the start time of snow removal operations throughout the City.

If you have a contractor authorized to clear your driveway, alley or parking lot, both residential and commercial, they should have received the City’s snow removal schedules by email. If not, ask them to contact the City. Armed with this knowledge, your contractor will be able to respect the City’s schedule and avoid situations such as this one.

The City is divided into 13 snow clearing sectors with arteries and collector streets given priority over residential streets. A piece of snow clearing equipment is assigned to each of these sectors with the goal of providing a clearing pass on each street every 4 hours during snowfall.

When the snowfall starts and ends greatly affects the timing of passes on our residential streets. As an example, snowplough passes will be prioritized in the early afternoon before the evening rush hour but there may be a rest period for our drivers in the 9 p.m. to 4 a.m. period when there is much less traffic on the roads. If it is snowing hard, there will undoubtedly be a certain accumulation of snow before our pre-morning rush hour ploughing begins at about 4 a.m. This is unavoidable as we must respect new provincial laws requiring prescribed rest periods for our plough drivers.

Of course, aside from mandatory rest periods for our employees, all sorts of things can go wrong and any number of things can impede our progress in ploughing our streets. This includes road accidents, machinery breakdowns or even cars parked on the street impeding the ploughs ability to pass, so please be patient, we are on the job and will be on your street as soon as possible.

During and after a snowstorm, our snow clearing crews are out in full force clearing all city streets and eventually they will reach your street. The City’s Public Works Department is coordinating staff and more than 25 pieces of snow equipment to clear the city’s almost 300 km of streets. As this is their first priority, calling Public Works during a snowfall or immediately after a storm to find out why your street has not yet been cleared will not result in faster snow clearing service on your street.

Please understand, and this is especially true for storms that have had a particularly strong wind component, that it may take up to 24 hours after the end of a storm to clear and treat both the roads and sidewalks. Exceptionally heavy snowfalls of over 25 cm (10 inches) or back-to-back storms can extend this cleanup period to up to 48 hours after the end of a storm.

Stay informed about the progress of snow removal operations by consulting the “Snow removal operations” page (button available on the home page of our website).

Nonetheless, if you have an emergency and must be able to immediately leave your home, please call Dollard-des-Ormeaux Municipal Patrol any time of the day at 514-684-6111.

Like other cities, the City of Dollard-des-Ormeaux has opted to blow snow rather than haul it away for economic and environmental reasons. Hauling snow by truck is costly, while blowing snow onto private property avoids thousands of trips, significantly reduces greenhouse gas emissions, and clears streets more quickly.

Any object in the public domain (trees, plants, grass, driveway curbs, etc.) that has been damaged by City equipment during the winter will be repaired in the spring. Please call 514-684-1010 or email us at ville@ddo.qc.ca to report damage as soon as it is visible. They will be subject to an on-site assessment in the spring.

At all times, salt is used on main and secondary arteries and collector streets, while abrasives (a mixture of 0-5 mm stone and salt) are used in residential areas, when necessary, to ensure better traction for vehicles. Note that below -15ºC, salt is no longer effective, so only abrasives are used on large arteries.

To ease environmental concerns, for the past 10 years, our salt trucks have been equipped with electronic spreading systems to ensure that the right amount of salt is deposited on the road. We are constantly testing new products to improve service and respect the environment.

Canada Post is responsible for clearing the path to the mailbox. For more information or to report a buried mailbox, you can contact Canada Post at 514-684-4055.

Depending on the amount of snow received, street widening can be done up to twice during the winter. They might be interrupted at any time if there is a snowfall.

With the City’s current comprehensive snow plan, the possibility of a street being missed is unlikely. What is more likely is that a machine broke down, which has put a sector behind schedule and that we are in the process of catching up. Let us know if your street is not cleared after 48 hours.

During the snowfall, bus stops are included in our snow plan and are cleared in order to maintain their safe use for our citizens. As you can imagine, windblown snow affects these operations especially at those bus stops where there is a shelter. However, as with our streets, the final snow clearing of the bus stops can only really be carried out once the snow stops falling.

Streets are prioritized with respect to their vocation, which is mainly related to the amount of traffic on a particular thoroughfare. Also, parts of the evaluation process are budgetary and environmental considerations with respect to the use of chemical melting agents.

For the sake of sound management of public funds and in order not to increase the tax burden on our citizens, the additional hiring of employees is not considered. Instead, we opt to optimize our resources according to weather conditions.

As with all cities in Quebec, snow removal employees are subject to provincial legislation that requires a mandatory rest period. Our employees may not work more than 13 consecutive hours, followed by 11 hours of rest. Employees of snow removal contractors are also subject to this law.

Bike paths are not cleared of snow in winter. There is one exception: the portion of the bike path located between Davignon street and boulevard Sunnybrooke.