Montreal winters are not for the faint-hearted. With an average of 210 cm of snow falling every year, this city doesn’t just experience winter — it goes to battle with it. Clearing snow from every street, sidewalk, and alley is an operation of epic proportions. And with nearly $200 million spent annually in construction and plowing costs to keep the city moving, it’s not just a massive financial burden; Montreal spends more than anywhere else in Canada by far, nearly double what Toronto spends.
For Montrealers, snow removal is part of the rhythm of winter life. It’s the steady hum of plows at 3:00 a.m., the towering piles of snow at street corners, and the icy sidewalks that still somehow evade city crews. But behind the scenes of this carefully choreographed chaos lies a city grappling with mounting costs, environmental fallout, and an unpredictable future shaped by climate change.
Every winter storm triggers a city-wide operation, mobilizing thousands of workers and an army of machinery. Over 10,000 kilometers of streets and sidewalks must be cleared. But this isn’t just about shovels and salt — it’s about logistics on a grand scale. Trucks cart snow to dumping sites where it’s piled into mountains taller than most buildings, and the effort requires constant coordination to avoid bottlenecks and delays.
What’s the cost of this snowy dance? It’s not just the hefty annual price tag. Road salt, a staple of snow and ice management, seeps into the soil and waterways, disrupting ecosystems and contaminating local vegetation. Then there’s the waste left behind — oil, metals, and plastic particles trapped in the snow that ends up dumped into the environment.
But the biggest threat to Montreal’s snow strategy isn’t the snow itself — it’s how the snow is changing. Climate change is rewriting the rules of winter. While total snowfall might decrease in the long run, the snow we do get is arriving in shorter, fiercer bursts. And it’s no longer just snow: freeze-thaw cycles are creating ice sheets that are tougher to clear and even harder to manage.
The city has started testing new ways to handle the pressure. Electric snow plows are rolling through neighborhoods as part of a pilot program to cut emissions. Scientists are experimenting with eco-friendly alternatives to salt. Advanced weather modeling systems are being used to predict storms more accurately, saving time and resources. These steps are promising, but they’re also just that — steps. The question remains: how effective are these methods compared to what is currently used? Can they scale up to meet the demands of Montreal’s massive snow removal operations or are they destined to remain small-scale solutions? How will they reshape the city’s ability to handle increasingly unpredictable winters?
For McGill students, this battle with snow is both a background story and a reality check. It’s about navigating campus during a storm, slipping on icy paths between classes, and realizing that the snow piles you climb over were part of a $200 million effort to make the city livable. But it’s also a chance to see how a city adapts to problems as big as the weather itself.
Maybe this is where the twist lies. Montreal’s snow removal isn’t just a story of trucks and salt. It’s about resilience, adaptation, and finding creative ways to handle challenges that cities everywhere will face as the climate continues to change. It’s a reminder that even something as mundane as clearing snow can reflect how a city fights to stay connected and move forward.
As winter rolls on, one thing is clear: Montreal isn’t backing down from its snowy foe. And in its determination, it’s carving out a blueprint for how cities can turn a battle with the elements into a story of innovation and survival.