Winter has declared war on the City of Barrie.
According to Environment Canada senior climatologist David Phillips, he told Barrie 360 that over 42 days, it has snowed on 34 of those days.
Barrie's arsenal to deal with the wintry onslaught includes 18 contracted plows, as well as a city-owned fleet of 13 sander/salters, six plows, and 16 combo units designed to perform multiple snow removal tasks. The city also has 27 sidewalk plows, of which 17 are contracted.
Some people have posted on social media to thank the snow-clearing crews in Barrie for trying to keep up with the endless snowfall, while others have gone into a rage mode over what they feel is a lack of treatment for roads and sidewalks, particularly on residential streets.
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Dave Friary, the city's Director of Operations, said the past few weeks have been challenging for crews.
"It's all-hands on deck, all the time," he told Barrie 360. "Having folks working 12 hours a day for five or six days in a row is difficult on them as well. We do have to give them a rest every now and then. It's Ministry of Transportation standards. They can take some time off, but then you just have to put somebody else in that plow and keep going."
Asked if a city-run fleet without a contracted service might do a better job of snow-clearing, Friary said it was a balancing act.
"We think we have hit the perfect balance between city and contractors. We always prefer to use our own staff. But if we hired another 30 to 40 drivers on the city's side, it's keep them busy all year round. You have to find something for all of those staff to do during the summer months. I know there is a lot of potholes and graft to cut, but just keeping everybody busy is a thing that can get difficult."
Barrie's snow-clearing budget for 2025 was $9 million. The city is at least a million dollars over, and Friary said a firm figure won't be available until invoices from contractors are received later this month.
Friary is not unaware of the blistering complaints on social media about the snow-clearing of residential streets. He said it can take 12 to 24 hours after the end of a snowfall to get around a single route. If the service were to be increased, the route would have to be shortened, and that would require the addition of staff and another eight to 10 plows.
"I can tell you that over the last three years, we've met the municipal maintenance standards https://www.ontario.ca/laws/regulation/020239 for highways that are set out by the province 100% of the time. We're not in a liable position. People will request quicker, better, and faster service, but it does come at a cost."
Explaining the levels of winter road service, the City of Barrie says on its website that residential routes are attended to regularly, but less often than priority and secondary routes.
More often than not, Friary says crews try to get to residential streets at night.
"There is no sense going out during the day when there is a lot of traffic and parked cars, kids running in and out behind snowbanks."
Friary acknowledged that in some neighbourhoods, people are running out of snow storage, as snowbanks have reached two metres or more.
"Unfortunately, you see some folks throwing the snow onto the roadways, and that makes ruts and bumps. That snow you throw out there gets compacted, and it's dangerous for people driving down the street if they hit a large pile of snow that you've left there."
He added that it's also illegal to push snow out onto the roadway. Friary recommends people attempt to pile the snow on their lawn, if they can.
During the Christmas and New Year's period, Barrie not only got walloped by snow, but several days also featured strong winds, freezing rain, and overnight wind chill values flirting with minus 30 Cel.
Friary explained that salt stops working on roads when the temperature drops to around minus 10 Cel.
"It doesn't matter if you put a bunch of salt on it, it's not going to melt and clear the roadway off."
Treated salt is an option to about minus 15 Cel, Friary added, and then there is sand, but even then, the main routes are not going to get down to bare concrete.
In a post to social media on Tuesday, the city said Barrie has already received over 210 cm of snow since November, a year's worth of snow.
"Thank you for your patience as winter crews continue their work across the city," the post stated. "For snow clearing updates, plowing priorities, and winter parking rules, visit www.barrie.ca/snow."
When crews conduct snow lifts, the snow is stored on an asphalt pad at the city's Operations Centre on Ferndale Drive.
The city said it had to bring a bulldozer in to compact the pile this year.
"As the snow melts, the remaining sand and debris are swept up, and the meltwater flows into a stormwater retention pond. This process prevents and other debris from entering the lake."
Later this week, there will be a warm-up, according to Environment Canada, with daytime temperatures near 5 Cel., with a chance of rain on Friday.
