Winter Road Maintenance

Under the Ontario Highway Traffic Act, it is illegal to shovel, blow or plow snow out onto a roadway. It’s also very dangerous and can cause oncoming vehicles to lose control. Please use caution when clearing your driveway and always be aware of the traffic around you.

Do not park on the roads or block snow plow turn-around areas. Parked vehicles can prevent snow removal crews from clearing the roads in a timely and efficient manner. Any vehicles parked on the road during snow removal could be towed at the owner's expense. 

If you don’t use your mailbox during the winter, remove it – post and all. Most times when seasonal mailboxes get damaged, it’s because plowed snow accumulates in front of it, causing increased weight and pressure against it over the course of the winter. It’s your responsibility to keep the area around your mailbox clear of snow.

Are you only here during the summer? Why not install your mailbox post in a 5-gallon bucket filled with concrete or sand, which you can then move off the road during the off-season. Mailboxes damaged by snow load off plow equipment will not be replaced by the Township.

The Township doesn't replace mailboxes that are damaged because of snow thrown from the plow. If there is evidence that your mailbox was damaged from contact with the plow's blade, please contact the Public Works Supervisor to report the damage.

For guidance on the placement of roadside mailboxes, see Canada Post's Rural Mailbox Guidelines.

Please assess your road-facing yards and check for any encroachment issues and remove them. Encroachment is any objects such as basketball nets, landscaping rocks, bushes, or fences from your property that hang over or cross onto the road allowance. These items can obstruct our snow clearing operations and may result in damage to your property. Please remove all encroachment items from the road allowance and or place a marker by it so our plow operators can do their best to avoid it.

A windrow is a pile of snow that accumulates at the end of driveways when the road is plowed.

Why does the snowplow leave a windrow at the end of my driveway?

Plow operators do not intentionally block driveways with snow; the plows have limited control over the amount and direction of snow that comes off the plow as they are designed to remove snow from the center to the right shoulder of the road.

When you or your driveway plow contractor is clearing the end of your driveway, please pile the snow on the right side (standing in your driveway and looking towards the road, if possible) of your driveway and not on the shoulder of the road. This helps reduce the amount of snow that is pushed onto your driveway when a snowplow passes.

The provincial government allows municipalities to call Significant Weather Events. During a Significant Weather Event, the municipality has a wider window of opportunity, and addition time, to conduct winter maintenance and bring road conditions to the standard level of service following a major weather event.

For example, in the event of an approaching or during a severe weather event, if it is determined by the municipality there is a need to declare a “Significant Weather Event that is likely to delay our resources and our ability to maintain service levels within the set timeframes, the Designated Municipal Official can, through the proper channels, declare a significant weather event and by doing so extend the road maintenance period. Once declared, the regulation deems the roads to be in a state of repair until such time as determined by the municipality that the significant weather event has ended.

Following this period, the Municipality shall declare an end to the significant weather event and complete any required road and sidewalk maintenance within the time frames set out in the MMS.

More information can be found in the provincial regulation.