Sault Blog

Another massive snowfall year is nothing new to the City of Sault Ste. Marie, a “winter-city” that experiences yearly snowfall accumulations of twelve (12) feet or more. Last year’s fourteen yes (14) feet total snowfall accumulation was an unbelievable amount of snowfall, which many Saultites dubbed the snowmageddon year.

Last year’s snowmageddon 2024-2025 was an unrelenting month after month of snowfall that tried even the most hardened Saultite to offload the fundamental Canadian lifelong responsibility of shovelling their own driveway. From an early age, as a rite of passage for any young Canadian male, the task of shovelling the driveway was a responsibility to be completed before you were allowed to go play rink hockey (where you had to shovel the rink too).

However, a number of years ago, this all changed with the advent of the snow-blowing tractors. A new winter phenomenon has brought forward the farm tractor with a massive snowblower implement attached to the back. This industrial snow-blowing farm implement renders the little walk-behind snowblower obsolete. This industrial farm implement will drag all the snow from a driveway and blow it to a targeted area. Speed is of the essence, and a driveway can be done in less than a minute, because it has to be done that fast, because these snow-blowing companies have thousands of customers who have relinquished their Canadian duty of snow-blowing their own driveway.

This new snow blowing service is a relief to the tired snow blowing and shovelling, predominantly senior, home-owners; however, it does represent some new challenges for neighbours and the City of Sault Ste. Marie at large. When you shovel or snow blow your own driveway, you generally distribute the snow evenly along “your driveway and/or your front yard” in general. The new industrial snow-blowing companies do not do that; they drag all the snow down from the driveway and blow it directionally to the City’s hellstrip. A hellstrip is the small area of property that the City owns from the street curb to your property. The first fifteen or twenty-five feet, depending on the age of the neighbourhood you reside in. This hellstrip may include a City sidewalk that even further restricts the space to pile all this snow.

So, whereas when you shovel or snow-blow your own driveway, you do not blow the snow on the sidewalk because that would be disrespectful, and you do not blow the snow onto the hellstrip because you cannot see traffic approaching when you back out of your driveway. It’s just common sense.

Industrial snow-blowing companies must direct the snow to the hellstrip because the force of the blowing snow, sometimes with driveway stones, can damage property, vehicles, fences, shrubs, trees, and other assets. These industrial snow blowing companies do not want to be liable for property or vehicle damage, thus the snow is piled up on the hellstrip, a mountain of snow at the end of the driveway.

I happen to live on Queen Street East, at the apex of a curve, where it is difficult to see approaching vehicles, often speeding, even in the summer months. The hellstrip in front of my house is loaded with snow from my neighbour’s massive driveway, courtesy of the industrial snow-blowing company. There is also a very convenient RM bus stop on the pole in my hellstrip, which the City Public Works pushes the snow up to make way for transit riders to board the bus. Interesting that in the past, a massive City Works pay loader machine would actually remove the snow for the bus riders in the past; however, the policy now is to just push and mound up the snow on the hellstrip.
The City employee who snow-blows the sidewalk does a fantastic job; however, he, too, must blow the snow onto the already besieged hellstrip.

So if you can understand the pattern here: the industrial snow-blowing company, the City bus stop plow, and the City sidewalk snow-blowing machine all pile up the snow on the hellstrip, creating a mountain of snow very quickly in a City that is a snowmageddon winter-city.

I have lived here on Queen Street East for a number of years, and I believe the snow banks on the hellstrips were cut back three (3) times per winter season in the past. Now, most years the hellstrip snowbanks are done twice a year; some years, once.

If the City is going to allow industrial snow-blowing companies to blow all the snow onto the hellstrip, then it should be the industrial snow-blowing company’s responsibility to remove or pay to remove the snow from the City’s hellstrips.

The City of Sault Ste. Marie is a winter city. My hellstrip is not the only hellstrip in this City that is mounted up with snow to such an extent causing a dangerous driving experience for all concerned. The practice of industrial snow-blowing companies directing all the snow onto the hellstrip must cease immediately. A better, more timely schedule for customer service to cut back the hellstrip snowbanks is demanded, because this is a basic safety issue.

We cannot cheap out on snowplowing and hellstrip snow removal because we are a winter city. That’s never going to change. It is the responsibility of the City Administration to spend money on the basic core services that this City needs and demands, and not on delusional ideas.

Mark Menean, http://www.saultblog.com