Winter is here – and my office receives a steady stream of questions about snow clearing and windrows at this time of year. I’m re-sharing information from two past “Because You Asked” features to help residents understand how the Town of Whitby approaches show clearing and why we don’t have a windrow clearing program in place.
Snow clearing
The Town of Whitby is responsible for clearing over 1,173 lane km of roads, 329 km of sidewalks, 34 km of trails, 295 cul-de-sac locations, 122,000 square metres of parking lots, and grooming 38 km of trails.
Areas are salted and cleared in a specific order depending on whether it is a primary, secondary, or tertiary road, sidewalk, trail, or parking lot. Clearing the roads based on categories helps to keep traffic flowing to regional roads, schools, community centres, and industrial/commercial areas.
Visit whitby.ca/snow#FindMyStreet to find out if the road you live on or near is primary, secondary or tertiary.
As a resident or property owner, you’re responsible for clearing your own driveway and any windrows left by snowplows on the road or sidewalk.
It is also your responsibility to clear ice and snow from the sidewalk fronting and on each side of your property and to avoid parking on the street during or immediately after a snowstorm to allow plows to clear the roads.
You can click here to support a road, sidewalk or trail winter issue. Visit whitby.ca/snow for more information.
Windrows
The Town provides a free windrow clearing service for people 65 and over and those with disabilities. Over 1,170 people signed up to receive this service in 2024.
The Town follows provincially legislated standards for snow clearing, which set out what winter maintenance is required based on road classification and the amount of snowfall.
The legislation does not include requirements for windrow clearing.
A municipality-wide windrow clearing program is offered in very few southern Ontario municipalities -- Richmond Hill, Vaughan, and parts of Toronto.
The City of Toronto only offers windrow clearing in Etobicoke, Scarborough, and North York – it’s a pre-amalgamation service that has not been extended to the rest of the city.
Town of Whitby staff have provided Council with periodic updates on the cost of a windrow program.
A high-level estimate from 2023 notes that a town-wide windrow program using contracted services would cost $3.7 million annually.
Based on the costing provided in a City of Mississauga report from October 2024, the most current estimate is $5.2 million annually, again through contracted service providers.
If the Town were to provide the service in-house, it would require the purchase of 50 pieces of equipment at a cost of about $30 million, as well as additional costs for staffing, fuel and insurance.
The Town currently uses dump trucks with plows for the majority of snow clearing. Windrow eliminator blades only work on loaders and require the loader to travel at a much slower rate of speed and then a truck will follow behind to salt the road.
A windrow clearing program can also pose unique challenges including challenges with providing windrow clearing on the same day as waste collection, and preventing on the lower portion of driveways, further exacerbating residential parking issues.
